“In 5–4 ruling, Supreme Court allows Trump plan to deny green cards to those who may need gov’t aid,” NBC News

Content Warning: immigration and white supremacy trauma, mention of suicide and incarceration

This ruling is, in no uncertain terms, a war on not only immigrants but also all poor people. Previously, U.S. citizen children of immigrant parents could receive public benefits like food stamps or school lunches without impacting their parents’ ability to get immigration applications approved. The Supreme Court just ruled to change that. Having to choose between giving your children food and giving them parents is not a choice. It is the architecture of 21st century genocide.

One thing you learn from working in, studying, or being subjected to U.S. immigration law is that it is quite explicit and matter-of-fact about the hierarchy of value assigned to different bodies. Which lives are worth how much, under what circumstances, hinging on what conditions.

In humanitarian applications (i.e. applications for immigrant victims of certain kinds of crime as well as applications to “pardon” the unlawful entry of a U.S. citizen’s immigrant spouse — etc.), one factor that weighs heavily is: who depends on the applicant? What is the dependent’s immigration status? Would they suffer if the applicant were deported? How badly and in what ways? Dependents who are not citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents are not counted and citizens are counted more heavily than LPRs. The life of the applicant is not counted at all. Even the lives of some U.S. citizens are deemed expendable, as in the case of an adolescent girl, born in the U.S., whose Mexican father was ordered deported despite his daughter’s suicide attempt during her father’s incarceration.

This is what I mean when I talk about “trauma porn” being an integral part of immigration processes. The United States has an insatiable thirst for the suffering of brown and Black people; of already historically looted people. Suffering is often the most or least valuable form of currency with which immigrants must barter for their dignity.

This is what I mean when I talk about the immigration system being an inherently traumatic machine, even for “standard” processes like marriage petitions. From the moment you consider applying for anything, your life and those of your loved ones are assigned a value amount.

Over 10 years in immigration law, every applicant I ever worked with was acutely aware of how much bargaining power their life carried should they ever have to use it.