I sat down to write something on the thousands of children coming up
from Central and South America, and “illegally” crossing into the
United States and found myself slightly fearful of what I would write.
Do I write that the United States needs to embrace these children and
help protect them from what they are escaping? Do I write that while it
is sad that these children are entering the U.S., we have rules and
procedures that immigrants need to follow? Do I write about something
else entirely and not touch this issue (leave it to Don)? The scary
thing about blogging something online is that it remains documented and
who knows what I write in my twenties could come back to me in my
fifties – the media takes all famous people’s prior words out of
context. And do I threaten potential clients if I write something that
they do not agree with?
But then I thought, well if 55,000 children can walk thousands of miles, I can face some future risks from a blog post (or of course, no one will read this so it will not matter anyway).
For children to leave their families, friends, homes, languages, cultures and
venture to the unknown is incredibly brave. It should tell us Americans that things are
not going well in the Southern part of our continent. America is great
and all – wonderful opportunities do abound here – but it is foreign. We
speak a different language in this country, we eat different food, we
have different customs. Can you imagine leaving the U.S. and walking to
Honduras, as an adolescent, not knowing anyone at your destination?
Very few teenagers I know would try something like that. In high school I
desperately wanted to study abroad, but I loved my school and group of
friends and did not want to miss a year with them so I never went at
that time. Imagine leaving your friends, school, and family forever! So
let us set the record straight – whatever these kids are, whatever
names the media and politicians are calling them, they are
brave.
Because of this mass exodus of children,
immigration reform has come to the forefront of Obama’s policymaking
(again). Yesterday in fact, he declared that he was going to use his
Executive powers to act since Congress will not. And I agree wholeheartedly that we need immigration reform. Our system is
lengthy, complicated, discretionary, and rigid. However, I cannot help
but wonder what sort of reform would allow 55,000 undocumented children
to enter the United States with the current (general) attitude of anti-immigration many
Americans yell about. Some people say that the current immigration rules
are inviting these children to enter the US (they are not by the way –
most of these children are in removal proceedings). But unless we have a
change of heart as a nation,
Americans are bizarrely against inviting anyone new
into the country. I suppose a lot can change in 200 years, but unless
you are Native American, chances are pretty high that you come from a
family of immigrants. This is why America’s immigration policy is
bizarre.
Perhaps the arguments about immigrants ‘stealing’ American jobs and
welfare money would come true, but chances are that these immigrants
would try to become American and want to contribute back to their home
(ie the USA) just as much as you and if do (in fact, probably more
because it means more once you’ve traveled so far to create a new home).
It seems unfair that we punish people because of that
random chance of being born elsewhere in the world. If someone is born
in a country of violence, war, poverty, should we not allow them to
escape? Perhaps the new reform acts Obama has in mind will help to
address this, but unless we have a heart (and mind) change as a country,
it seems unlikely that Americans will embrace open borders and allow
all people to create their own destiny, rather than the one they are
born into.
