Last week I wrote about the Declaration of Independence and the lure of the American dream.
The U.S has been trying for some time to rewrite immigration law as they struggle to secure their southern border from illegal immigration. In the past few weeks the issue has flared up as more and more children arrive, sometime unaccompanied, into America through Mexico. Citizens in the town of Murrieta, Cali. were in the spotlight as they protested the arrival of illegal immigrants.
The issue of immigration is another policy divide in the U.S. that seems to get caught up in partisan politics and differing world views. Last week, on the CNN show John Berman and Michaela Pereira, I heard two people discussing the issue: one, a long time observer of immigration issues; the other, a border guard. Their conversation epitomizes the division of opinion. Here is a section of the transcript (I edited it somewhat due to length):
Pereira: "I have been watching the video from down there and watching this anger and this passion from the people on the protest lines in that town hall meeting. Are you surprised by this sort of 'not in my backyard' reaction?"
Ruben Navarette, CNN contributor: "No. It's typical. I am not surprised by it, but I'm again disappointed by it. The amount of ignorance is really profound, and in a case like this, calling these folks illegal immigrants. We don't know if these kids came across the border illegally, if in fact they have asylum claims... So there's that. And beyond that, the sort of anger that we see, this palpable anger, I would love to see some of this directed to employers... Who do you think picks... grapes in the middle of the night? It is undocumented immigrants... There's an incredible disconnect in Murrieta and really in towns across the country where Americans will not acknowledge their dependence on illegal immigrant labor."
Berman: "Hector, I want to bring you in here. These busses ended up in this town after these immigrants were flown to California from your state in Texas. Where we are told the situation is growing almost out of control. Texas, the area you're in often simply can't handle the influx of people there. Give us a sense of what you're seeing on the ground?"
Hector Garza, border patrol agent: "Basically what we're seeing is, plain and simple, a rampant abuse of our immigration system. We have a situation right now where our federal government is pretty much aiding and abetting and facilitating these individual aliens. These illegal aliens cross our borders illegally. We apprehend these illegal aliens that pretty much surrender themselves because they know that they're getting a free pass."
The views expressed here reflect the growing divide between those who think that migrants are criminals and want a free ride and those who see the complex nature of people who are displaced by poverty and violence. Many of these people are fleeing life in South American countries. Five or ten minutes of research will reveal the desperate nature of their lives.
I was talking to my daughter about this the other day and she reminded me of the wonderful moment in the television series, The Newsroom, when the character Maggie says, "The rhetoric we use to talk about these people who risk their lives to have a shot at picking oranges so their kids can have a shot at not being dead makes it sound like we're talking about scraping gum off our shoes. These people chose to take a huge risk to become Americans, and they deserve a better descriptor than 'illegals.'"
Yet, as with many divisive issues we find the political rhetoric is shaped in such as a way as to make extraordinarily complex issues appear simple. The Democrats and the Republicans are in a war of words over who is to blame for the growing crisis and how much to spend to fix the problem.
The fact is, illegal immigration happens all over the world and without doubt it poses serious issues for the host country. Our capacity to have the conversation about how governments will deal with the tragedy of human displacement should be framed by rational discussions of the real complexity of the migrant experience.
