USA Immigration policy - says 'NO' to Communists

 

There was a time when ‘zindabad’ reverberated in Ambattur Industrial area – now the Unions are gone and before them, the small industrial units too !  - Indian flag being used by pro-democracy protesters in Hongkong against China is going viral !

For many, a visit to USA is a dream – be it for Education, job or a visit – the crowds standing in front of US Embassy for visa always bear a testimony to this. Now comes a crude jolt to the aspirations of commies by way of a notification issued by ‘U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’  - dt  October 2, 2020 stated to be a ‘Policy alert’.  The subject line reads : Inadmissibility Based on Membership in a Totalitarian Party Purpose  and describes inadmissibility based on membership in or affiliation with the Communist or any other totalitarian party.   In general, unless otherwise exempt, any immigrant who is or has been a member of or affiliated with the Communist or any other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate), domestic or foreign, is inadmissible to the United States.

Communist parties  are no longer perceived, by any considerable stretch,  as a realistic threat to capitalism. That is no longer the case.  In many countries, including USA, the systematically violent anti-communism of the right has an emotional depth-charge, expedited by the sinophobic fearmongering about China defeating the US and taking American jobs.  

It was a scene straight out of the 1950s, but the year was 2017. Travis Allen, a Republican from southern California, took to the floor of the state assembly on 8 May to denounce communism. “To allow subversives and avowed communists to now work for the state of California,” he railed, “is a direct insult to the people of California who pay for that government.” Allen was speaking out against a move to remove language from the California code that that bars members of the Communist party from holding government jobs in the state.

How can it be that a presidential election in the US in 2020 is being fought by the Republicans on the febrile ground of anti-communism? Trump claims that the Democratic party, for whom free universal healthcare is too radical, is a Trojan horse for “wild-eyed Marxists”. The Republican national convention was filled with anti-communist alarmism. According to a campaign video posted on Trump’s YouTube channel, the president is “standing between capitalism and communism”. The infamous Tea Party campaigns portraying Obama as a “socialist” – just like Lenin and Hitler, apparently – have become the licensed conspiracy theory of the White House.

By the latest notification, Communist Party members will now be ineligible to immigrate to the US, according to new US Citizenship and Immigration Services policy guidance document. The latest policy guideline covers the Communist Party from "any foreign state, or of any political or geographical subdivision of any foreign state." The policy document clearly says, that the ground for inadmissibility in or affiliation with the Communist Party or any other totalitarian regime, is a part of the broader set of laws passed by US Congress to address threats to the safety and security of the United States.     

This decision comes in the backdrop of a growing gulf between the USA and China over a spate of issues ranging from trade to coronavirus to Hong Kong security legislation and Bejing's purported treatment of its religious minority in Uygur autonomous region.  The latest US government policy also impacts the Communist Party members of India and other countries who wish to migrate to the US or seek US citizenship.

The United States Department of the Treasury imposed new economic sanctions against a top Cuban general on Wednesday. The move is part of the pressure campaign carried out by the Trump Administration against the Castro – Diaz Canel government, Europa Press reported. The US Government singled out General Luis Alberto Rodriguez, head of the most important military business conglomerate in Cuba. His name adds to the list of Cubans sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department. Rodriguez, head of Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA (GAESA), is a former son-in-law of Communist Party leader Raul Castro. Washington justified the sanction saying the general acted “against the peoples of Cuba and Venezuela.”  The measure includes the freezing of his assets under US jurisdiction, although there is no information if such assets exist. Moreover, he cannot carry out transactions involving individuals and entities of the US.

In this sense, the text ensures continued US “support for the Cuban people in their desire to achieve a democratic government and respect for Human Rights, including freedom of religion, expression and association.” Most political observers believe the Trump administration’s main interest in Cubans is about Cuban-American votes in Florida. The State is considered crucial for the president’s reelection campaign. Nonetheless, the US Treasury stated: “Until these rights and freedoms are respected, we will hold the regime responsible for its actions.”

Back in home, Commies are no longer a potent force either in Parliament or in almost all States.  In 2019, they registered their  worst poll performance in over six decades.  Left Front was virtually wiped off its bastions with the Lok Sabha poll results showing it managed just five seats across the country. On its erstwhile turf in West Bengal, where it failed to win even one seat, its vote share reduced to a paltry 7 per cent from 23 per cent in 2014. And in Kerala, where it managed only one seat, its vote share was around 32 per cent. In West Bengal, it was a debacle wherein all but one Left-wing party candidates lost their security deposits. This was also the first time since 1952 that the Left Front did not end up with double digits in the general election. Till now, while it had put up its most dismal show in 2014, winning only 12 seats - 12 less than what it had won in 2009 - its highest ever tally of 59 seats had come in 2004.

 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

04.10.2020