I Was a Stranger

"I love you, but stay in line, on THAT side of the wall. Yes, yes, I know your family is hungry and there are jobs and food here, but just wait your turn. Yes, I know the wait is years long... if at all..."

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."

I Can't Close My Eyes and Make it Go Away

A year later, Iowa raid still marks a flashpoint
By MIKE McGRAW
The Kansas City Star
POSTVILLE, Iowa | If there is an epicenter in the shifting, emotionally charged debate over U.S. immigration policy, it is here, amid some of the richest soil on Earth.

That alluvial black dirt nurtures corn, beef cattle, chickens and turkeys, which require massive slaughterhouses. And that in turn nurtures a lively trade in the illegal immigrants willing to work in them.

All that ended in Postville a year ago today, when two government helicopters and some 900 immigration agents descended on this town of 2,200 and rounded up nearly 400 illegal immigrants working at a nearby meatpacking plant.

Believed to be the second-largest workplace immigration raid in U.S. history, it cost taxpayers $5.2 million, according to one estimate; it terrified workers and their families; and it left economic devastation in its wake.

"I am not angry at the people who do not want us here," said a weeping Nohemi Hurtado, who is from Mexico and earned $7.50 an hour cleaning the hair from beef carcasses at nearby Agriprocessors. "It is their country, but I just ask God that I can stay." [story continued]

On this anniversary of that dreadful event, I have difficulty wrapping my mind around its many implications.

To the extent anyone was taking advantage of these people, I am glad that ended. In no position to bargain, I expect the temptation to take advantage of them was intense. But then, that extends to the American consumer... okay, that extends to ME. Nohemi accepted $7.50 an hour to clean hair from beef carcasses. If I insist on cheap beef without care for how it was grown, processed and shipped, then I am part of the apparatus that exploited these workers.

I am confused and a little disturbed by the amount of resources put into this raid. Much like I am confused and disturbed at the anger often poured out on illegal immigrants from people who are only on this side of the border thanks to the DNA lottery and mere fate.

I am distressed at Nohemi's "it is their country..." If unquenchable love is the value, borders seem to be arbitrary divisions created by unquenchable pride or selfishness. Things that were stolen from others we now refuse to share.

The law is the law, and millions of hard-working people are here illegally. But perhaps the law is the problem this time and needs changing, to end the emotional, financial and sometimes physical devastation of my brothers and sisters who simply seek a fraction of the opportunity I have.