A July 4th plea for compassion, understanding

7/4/07
Few issues today raise people’s hackles like immigration. With millions of people in this country below the radar of our immigration laws, there is widespread agreement that the current system is untenable. People die every day trying to bypass border security in the Southwestern desert, while others live in daily fear of reporting a crime or seeking treatment for illness because they are scared of being discovered.
That this is a country of immigrants is common knowledge. There were, of course, thriving civilizations on the North American continent before the arrival of Europeans, and the subsequent treatment of these groups is one of the great shames of our nation. But everyone who built our American society and our system of government, everyone who wrote immigration laws and enforces border security, is himself an immigrant or a descendant of one. Many, or most, came here "illegally" — presumably, the Pilgrims declined to seek official permission from the contemporaneous residents of Massachusetts.
Since the birth of our nation, on this date 231 years ago, tens of millions more people have come here in search of something better for themselves and their loved ones. We are proud as a nation to call our society a melting pot, a place where immigrants and people of various nationalities are assimilated into one coherent group. But immigrants have always faced difficulties.
Nearly every nationality, religion or ethnic group can trace a history of repression and struggle upon reaching these shores. People of any imaginable descent can look back to their ancestors and remember a time when they were shunned by the wider populace, and held back from advancement in society. And we’re not past those problems; we still too often look for new groups to scapegoat and take the blame for our ills.
But we are mostly a country of great opportunities, and even greater compassion. As the debate continues over immigration, illegal and otherwise, we must keep in mind that the vast majority of people in this land strive to make our country greater — to improve their own lives, and, at the same time, their wider communities.
Most recent debate focuses on Hispanic immigrants, and the xenophobic charges revert to time-worn clichés once directed at any number of other ethnic groups. One group or another is more likely to commit crimes or give birth out of wedlock, is spending our tax dollars on services, sending all the money they earn out of the country, or stealing our jobs. It’s no more true or false than it ever was. The difference now, with our neighbor to the south the focus of people’s ire, is the previously unimagined remedy of a giant border wall to protect us from the oncoming hordes looming as a dream, or nightmare, solution.
It’s a fantasy. Build a wall, and people will climb over it, or under it, or go through it. That has been long proven. What we need is to show compassion and understanding for the people living here and struggling to get by, whether they’re in the country legally or not. We are not blowing open our borders to invite all comers, but we must recognize the contributions of everyone in this great country. We all deserve health care, schooling and police protection.
We are all Americans. Some of us have a piece of paper to prove it. Others show it in a different way, through their hard work and dreams of something better, every day of their lives.