It's not the wall I oppose, it's the gates. I don't want people dying while trying to cross a desert, I don't want drugs and weapons trucked across the border, I don't want known criminals traveling about freely. So fine, build the wall, but administer the gates openly. Verify what we can, but let people come in.
"What's my concern about you, my brother, coming into 'my' country? Well, your hard work will lower my income. You see, I benefit from having you on that side of the wall. I pay less for my shirt because it's made in your country, by a company that pays your family much less than it would have to pay me. I pay less for my beer because the company makes its bottles in your back yard, and doesn't need to worry about your family's safety like it would mine. I love you, you are my equal, but I depend on cheap stuff."
I must admit my role in the poverty that drives my brothers and sisters from their homes. They don't want to leave their children, unsure if they'll ever hold them again. They don't lightly leave all familiar things behind for a place they don't know, can't speak the language, are not welcome. Maybe instead of worrying about how their arrival will affect my security, my health care, my income, I can actively support life-sustaining practices by those I give money and time.
"How did I get on this side of the wall? I was born here. Luck of the draw, brother, sad for you. How did my family get here? Several generations ago they stood in line, followed the rules, just like I'm asking you to do. Who made those rules? Someone before my family, I had nothing to do with it and neither did my family. Yes, yes, the rules were made by someone AFTER they had murdered, cheated and driven out the original people living here, but that was long ago..."
It's very convenient of me to demand strict immigration practices, now that I and my family are here. I don't need to feel the shame of immoral practices of past generations, but I have the power to make my own choices now. I must consider how present, arbitrary rules continue the immoral acts of the past. I didn't force the Choctaw on their fatal Trail of Tears, but what is my part in the Chavez brothers' fatal journey across the Mexican border into this land where I live?
"I've worked hard, these things are mine, I'm scared of what will happen. Just stay on that side of the wall. Please."
"Wait! Come back! You are hungry, let me feed you. You are thirsty, let me give you a drink. You are homeless, let me give you a room.... I have plenty."
5 comments:
Wow. Good stuff, DVD.
ditto to what Brian said :)
Open Gates? Verify what we can, but let people come in?
I wonder, DVD, if you would feel the same way towards any and all people showing up at your doorstep.
The border is the doorstep of our country. "I can't verify who you are, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Come on in!" is not an attitude I'm willing to adopt when it comes to my home, nor is it an attitude that I want law enforcement to adopt on our borders, when it comes to unknown persons attempting to "cross the doorstep" uninvited.
90% of the cocaine in the US comes
through the Mexico/US border. MS 13 has between 6,000 and 10,000 members, mostly El Salvadoran immigrants here illegally. (stats from and FBI report in the mid 2000s) Or, to make it a little more personal, the first link when googling "crime illegal immigrants" is this: http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims.html
Take a second, open that link, and scroll through a little. Look at the pictures. Realize that, by and large, each and every person pictured there would not have suffered the fate they did had those who were here illegally been stopped from entering (or in some cases re-entering post-deportation) this nation.
I would prefer that we, as a nation and individually, work to help our Mexican brothers lift themselves up out of poverty. Helping them to keep the productive members of their society productive within their borders is a good place to start. Offering support to their law enforcement and making it less possible/attractive for drug traffickers to import their poison is another.
Finally, if we are to adopt the mentality of generational guilt that seems present within your post, shouldn't our counterparts to the south adopt a similar "societal guilt" concerning the undesirable elements that exist within their borders ? It is the criminal and terrorist elements that are my concerns and the reasons I support a strong stance on our border. If Mexico's people would stand up and take the risk of saying "no more" to the nonsense of cartels and gangs, I for one would be much more lenient in my views.
Let the people come in, but let them do it the right way. Go through the same process that most of our ancestors did. My Irish and English blood came from people who entered legally, as does that from my Polish ancestry. The Cherokee in me was here long before any of them realized that this land was here. All I ask is that those who want to come here now do so in a way that maximizes the chances that they will be an asset to this country and not a detriment.
I wrestle with the scarcity mentality. But the US border is the doorstep to 3.8 million square miles and a gross domestic product of over 14 trillion dollars. It's the equivalent of what, less than half a person showing up on the doorstep of my house? I'm good with that.
The comments of cocaine coming across the border and "generational guilt" appear to misunderstand my point. I try not to repeat myself, but I thought I made clear that a wall to prevent uninspected cargo and secret movement of people makes everyone safer, new immigrants and old. And I thought I was saying I have to accept responsibility for my actions, and that includes considering the indirect impact, which is a far cry from generational guilt.
The larger issue, in my opinion, continues to be that the focus on my safety and my stuff feels much easier than facing the question of my moral authority to deny anyone access to resources and facing the reality of the human consequences of my decisions.
I want equality to drive my choices, every choice, truly loving my brother as myself. Am I doing that?
From my experience of living in El Salvador for 7 years, a country where hundreds leave for the US illegally everyday to make the often deadly venture through Mexico, I've seen a lot of interesting things that can hopefully increase some sort of understanding of migration issues in the Americas. I certainly share DVD's ideas of solidarity or at least some sort of shared social response-ability largely based on my ability to respond (given the fact that I am in the top 10% of the world's wealthiest people simply by owning a house and a car) and understanding that ALL of my decisions do make an impact in the lives others. To think otherwise stinks of an egotistical and ignorant perception of independence that we are all often guilty of.
Only the Wealthy are Welcome
First of all it is very interesting to me that due to US immigration policies, on average, immigrants who come to the US legally do not need to be here. It is a privileged decision for them to seek more than their upper-middle class lifestyle (by their home-country standards) that they often enjoy in their home country . They often leave positions of contribution to their home society sometimes being well-educated lawyers, teachers, etc. to come to the US to work as unskilled laborers. They are demoted in their societal role but slightly promoted in terms of income. In addition, they easily adapt to their new and improved version of what they had already been enjoying in their home country and are easily susceptible to the temptation to become illegal by not returning to what they left behind.
In short, current US immigration practices provide absolutely no options for people who need to immigrate. Left with no options and acting out of desperation people will attempt almost anything in the name of providing a better life for their children. I've talked to dozens of poor Salvadorans who spent years trying to get there things in order for a visa only to be turned away. It basically goes like this… you have to have more than $15,000 in assets and a long list of things in order that would pretty much force you to come back to El Salvador. The irony is obvious: only the wealthy are welcome to enter the US legally.
However, though not always the case, in my experience the neediest of people are the ones most likely to return to their home communities after a few years of work in the US. You can't begin to imagine the social discomfort of an impoverished rural person in their own capital city, let alone being subject to years of isolation in a foreign country. Their entire goal is often to earn and save enough to return to their community with an amount (often $5-20K) that will enable them to buy few acres of land for a house and farm cultivation and live life at a whole new economical level. These beautiful block homes and tracks of well-taken-care-of land stand as an icon to what illegal immigration can get them: a life that is absolutely UNattainable for an uneducated farmer with no access to anything but a mud house and land to rent for cultivating enough corn and beans to barely feed his family after paying to rent the land with 20-40% of his crop.
Meanwhile, the "coyote" business (of assisting illegals to cross into the US) makes tens of billions of dollars every year off of the world's most vulnerable, yet courageous individuals. Couldn't the laws be modified to provide the possibility of access to those that need it?
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