Conference on World Affairs highlights the human aspects, inequality in immigration

During the first full day of presentations at the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs, a panel of six experts discussed the physical and metaphorical borders immigrants must overcome before arriving at their destination. 

Held at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, Wednesday’s discussion was titled Crossing Borders: Politics, Culture and Identity. Attorney Robert Sattin, former president of the St. Petersburg-based Appleton Group, moderated an esteemed panel with varying viewpoints on the trials and tribulations surrounding immigration.

Joining Sattin onstage was former Ambassador to Madagascar and the Republic of Mali, Vicki J. Huddleston; Author and Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida, Dr. Heide Castañeda; Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations at Ozyegin University in Istanbul, Dr. Deniz Sert; Mariana Sánchez Ramírez, Master of Public Policy candidate at the American University School of Public Affairs; and former United States Foreign Service Officer Joanne Wagner.

After 27 years in the Foreign Service, Wagner retired with the rank of Minister-Counselor. In September 2021, she led Operation Allies Refuge-Doha efforts as a senior director and coordinator. The operation’s mission was to bring American citizens, legal residents and the most vulnerable people in Afghanistan to Qatar following Afghanistan’s rapid collapse to the Taliban last summer.

“This truly was an absolutely unprecedented effort to safely bring people out and then into the United States,” said Wagner. “It is also … essentially a human story that is amazing.”

Wagner asked attendees to put themselves into the shoes of American Airmen in Doha, Qatar that expected planes carrying 300 refugees, only to realize there were 800 desperate people crammed on board. She said in five days, over 20,000 refugees landed in Doha with little food, water or shelter.

Wagner relayed that some slept under the wings of aircraft, as it was August in Qatar and the temperature reached 112 in the shade.

Wagner said 61 babies were born during the operation, including one during a crowded flight from Kabul to Doha. There were hundreds of unaccompanied minors and no established method for reuniting them with their families. Documentation was scarce, and after a certain point, the Taliban controlled who could reach the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

“That’s how human the stories were,” she said.

Wagner told one last story that humanizes the people many see as unwanted refugees. She recalled asking three young boys, excited at the prospect of freedom, what their plans were once reaching the United States. One said a doctor because he wanted to help people. Another said a policeman, also because they help people. The last boy, who she said spoke the best English of the bunch, pointed to a U.S. soldier and said he wanted his job “because I see what they can do.”

“These are the folks that are going to be our immigrants – these are going to be our fellow citizens,” said Wagner. “And I’m very impressed and very proud that these were people that I helped bring to the U.S.”

Castañeda began her remarks by putting a local connection to borders and sovereignty. She told the crowd she wanted to acknowledge that USF, her institution and the conference host, is built on the traditional homelands of the Seminole, Calusa and other Native American tribes.

Castañeda went on to explain that mobility and crossing borders are fundamentally unequal processes for different people around the world.

“In fact, I would argue that it is an intentional function of immigration law to create unequal ways for accessing different borders and crossing them,” she added.

Castañeda said that since 1965, immigration law has remained virtually unchanged. She also believes that government officials did not design immigration policy to adapt to current migration patterns. Although much of the discussion centered on refugees and asylum seekers, she said those groups only comprise a small number of U.S. immigrants.

Castañeda said most people arrive in the country through family reunification mechanisms that prioritize groups already living in the United States. A person without family ties or the “right” passport must immigrate illegally, leading to what she called crimmigration. 

Crimmigration is the criminalization of immigration activities and militarization of the southern border, something Castañeda said has increased exponentially over the last three decades.

“This concept of crimmigration is really unique to the U.S. situation and the outcomes of this 1965 law,” she said. 

When asked by the audience, Castañeda said she was unaware of any bipartisan legislative plans to address immigration. She said pressing issues such as the pandemic have caused immigration reform to fall by the wayside, and she hopes everyone attending the conference will think about the policy imperatives that exist when it comes to immigration and borders. 

In closing, Castañeda reminded the audience about the inequalities associated with border crossings. She said some passports are more valuable than others, and immigration officials often ignore visa agreements. She also reiterated how navigating intentional legal obstructions are often the toughest borders to cross. 

“It’s not just about your lottery of birth, where you were born,” said Castañeda. “That’s part of it, but a lot of it has to do with global relationships that underly a lot of these passport recognitions and visa agreements.”