Some Thoughts on Immigration

A friend forwarded an e-mail to us recently. She had received an opinion piece about Mexican immigration in the United States and wanted to know what we thought. As I read it over, it struck me that it wasn't so much the content of the piece that bothered me, but the tone of the writing that made me sad. It was mean-spirited.

I have a lot of trouble with the term "illegal alien." I think of an alien as a creature from outer space, not another human being who happened to be born on the other side of an artificial line called a border. And while an action might be illegal, I can't accept the notion that a person can be illegal. To my thinking, laws should be made to protect and serve people. If a law classifies whole groups of people as illegal, if the law strips people of their dignity and human rights, perhaps there is something wrong with the law and not with the people. (For a more in-depth look at border issues, use the link at the bottom of our blog for Border Network for Human Rights.)

To me, the whole idea of national boundaries is questionable. Throughout history, land has been claimed by whoever was most powerful and richest at the time. Laws are passed, soldiers are mustered, people are killed - all so that someone can claim the right to resources and deny those resources to others less fortunate. Much of the land that we call the United States of America has been taken away from the people who happened to be living on it when richer, more powerful strangers arrived and claimed it. This includes much of the land now called Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, which used to be part of Mexico until the first half of the nineteenth century.

For a variety of reasons, most of our neighbors here in Mexico are poor. Almost every family in Papagayos includes someone who is working in the United States, either legally or illegally. These families depend in part on the income that can be sent home from the workers who have gone north to find jobs. As a US citizen, I can't justify denying these workers jobs just because my ancestors arrived in the United States first. Even the first "native people" who crossed the ice bridge from Asia onto this continent were immigrants. And every immigrant since then, including each of my ancestors, has either been welcomed or despised. For my part, I choose to welcome others rather than turn them away.

To me it's ironic that the essay our friend sent us ends with the phrase "In God We Trust." I can't imagine that God wants us to draw boundary lines across this beautiful earth, to build fences and pass laws to keep others out. As I understand the will of God, it is that we should treat our fellow humans as our brothers and sisters, to consider them to be children of God just as we are, and to share our resources with them. The Biblical injunction to love our neighbors as ourselves means to me that we should welcome all kinds of refugees (including economic refugees) into our land and into our lives.

My nation, the United States of America, was built in part upon might and greed, land grabs and slavery. But my nation was also founded upon ideals of liberty and justice. I try to remember those ideals and let them inspire me to show compassion and fairness.