Saint John

What if I told you that, in the 21st century, the United States of America openly practices slavery? Hear me out...

In the past few years, millions of Latin American refugees have escaped neo-Communist nations in the Western hemisphere. And nearly all of them have had one place in particular to flee to: the USA.

According to international law, each of these people has the right to claim asylum in their newfound home. It is not a crime. In fact, the true crime would be in denying them a fair hearing. It would violate nearly every international human rights treaty America has been signatory to over the past hundred years.

And yet, that has become America's modus operandi. Over the span of years, hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers have been forcibly sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, with no hope of freedom.

Again, let me reiterate: none of these people are criminals. They are exercising their legal rights. And yet they have been arrested, incarcerated, and held without trial, in many cases for years on end.

But it gets far worse. A large number of refugees to the United States have been sent to privately owned prisons, where they have been subjected to forced labor, in the name of fulfilling a profit motive. And it has been a very lucrative business, with publicly traded corporations generating billions of dollars in revenue every year for their shareholders.

All of this is public knowledge. No one in power hides any of it. And it all adds up to one, horrific reality: that Uncle Sam is openly practicing slavery.

So there you have it. Old habits die hard, and slavery is one of the oldest habits on our continent. I'm not here to suggest solutions to dilemmas such as these; only to raise the alarm. Because as a famous pontiff once said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."