Immigration: The Debate and the Moral High Ground

Since 911 we have become a country that no longer believes itself to be safe from international violence. We have experienced first hand the devastation of loss on our soil. Our immigration system is broken and now consumed by fear as well as ineptitude, we struggle to move forward. 

We are a nation of immigrants. The only true natives are the American Indians, everyone else is an immigrant. Our boarders both north and south are pretty loose verses those who come into our country by plane or boat. We are a large country and the length of our boarders are long and have many miles covered by uninhabited land and wilderness. In short we do have to tighten up the loose ends. In the meantime we have people who are seeking asylum from persecution from violent gangs and corrupt governments. People who are looking just to live their lives without fear. I heard on Face the Nation this morning that at least 80% of all people coming into the United States are fleeing for personal safety for themselves and their families. So what are we to do?

Well I cannot write what we can do, we have experts that should be working on that. We do need to curtail people coming into our country illegally, we are a nation that has a rule of law. Sometimes though there are special circumstances.

I cannot remember where in Central America this large group of immigrants came from, but they came in a caravan headed for the US. We knew they were coming, we should have prepared to process them instead of seeking to ban them. The news gets confusing to me after that. One day I am listening to the news and this group of people are camped along our boarder and the next time I am hearing about children being taken from their parents.

President Trump has this zero tolerance policy for illegal immigration, which in effect means that the immigrants that come in illegally are jailed immediately and the children taken from them because they are not to be incarcerated with them. Obviously this was a heartless and extreme measure to a group of people who have already been extremely traumatized by events that led to their exodus.  Thank God that those closest to Trump were able to convince him that taking the children from their families was extreme and unusual punishment. In short a cold hearted act that served no reasonable purpose for the country nor the families involved.

What happens next is yet to be seen. But kudos to those who have been fighting for the human treatment of the immigrants coming in. We are a nation of laws, but we are also a nation of compassion and humanity. We are the standard bearers of freedom and human rights. This has been our nation's drive since World War II when we found out about the exterminations of Europe's Jews. We as a nation have held the moral high ground, we must not decide to waver from that now. We are the land of the free, the dream of the weary and safeguard for those who seek justice and peace.

We need to protect ourselves from those who seek to harm us, but we cannot call everyone the enemy or we will lose our identity and our grace.