People - here today; here tomorrow

I am an immigrant to the USA so it is probably natural I am interested in what the presidential candidates say about immigration. I have not heard a sensible position lately. They are all searching for a catchy news bite. That is sad, because immigration won’t be solved in 30-second news-bites. In a May 2006 article the Christian Science Monitor asked the question, “How many illegal immigrants?” The article included the diagram copied below (thanks, Christian Science Monitor!).

The article also said that about 4.7 million homes have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant. If these homes have the “standard” 2.2 children then about 27 million people living in USA are directly affected by an immigration policy.

Several candidates claim that they will send illegal immigrants home. (Will they keep families together?) The candidates have not said how they will move 27 million people. The dark history of the 20^th century shows how that number of people might be moved. My parents and the rest of the “Greatest Generation” proudly showed us how democratic people dealt with those governments. Today, any candidate claiming that a democratic freedom-loving USA can send all illegal immigrants home is not truthful. If they did, the USA would not be the country we know and love.

I suspect that deep down, we want to remove 27 million people, build a wall along the border and give up the freedoms that define our country because we are afraid. Today, I see a USA that has lost its confidence. 9/11 did not only shatter two buildings. It shattered our psyche. Osama bin Laden must be laughing all the way to his cave.

People will continue to come to USA for the same reason I did: for the chance of a better future for our children and ourselves. Those who are really desperate will continue to come illegally: especially if employers will hire them and ask no questions. If government wants to stop further illegal immigrants then it must focus on employers. That only leaves the 12-20 million illegal immigrants currently living with us. I back the suggestion that gives them an opportunity to become legal citizens. People who are born here love this country. Those of us who are granted the privilege of citizenship love it just as much.

Over Christmas we saw several cartoons of the baby Jesus, his mother and father fleeing to Egypt. The point was not very subtle. It suggested that Joseph and his family were likely undocumented immigrants. I took the photograph above in Venezuela last year. It is a collection of posters on a wall near a subway station in Caracas. It suggests that Jesus was a revolutionary. Is there a grain of truth in these two very different images - the poster and the cartoon? I don’t know, but I recall that one central message in the Bible is that we should care for the poor, the oppressed and the stranger at our gate. Are those illegal immigrants today's "strangers?"