“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tots to me,”
Emma Lazarus
With thousands of children crossing the southern border of the United States, Washington is having a hard time solving one of the most serious immigration crisis. The enormous wave of unaccompanied minors are being housed temporarily in facilities that cost money to maintain but most people are not comfortable with Obama asking for $3.7 billion to cover the costs. A lot of the migrant children are coming from Guatemala and El Salvador, while most are from Honduras, one of the most dangerous and violent countries in the world. So the rush is in part motivated by distorted rumors that new US immigration policy will grant legal status for children, but the biggest drive is the undeniable reality that extreme violence is ravaging those 3 countries.
Once again it’s clear that the United States does not benefit from a severely destabilize region, regardless of how high the walls reach on the border. As an emerging country, the US has redacted different immigration laws. Some have been quite reasonable like the “Contract Labor Law” of 1885 that forbid the entry of unskilled workers by sea. If you’re bringing in laborers to work for you, why are they unskilled? It’s just common sense.
Other laws, like closing all entries to those with epilepsy (which is not a contagious disease and even curable in many cases), the eugenicist’s classification of the “feeble-minded” among others were more arbitrary and inconsiderate. It was a clear departure from the initial fervor of creating a distinct country, free of old Europe’s vices. Some laws hurt communities and minorities for years but were eventually rectified. Take for instance the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which didn’t permit Chinese immigration for 10 years and made it illegal for those already living in the country to become U.S. citizens, regardless of how long they’d lived in here. The same was applied to Japanese immigrants. However, in 1898, amidst heavy anti-Chinese sentiments and actions in the western states the Supreme Court reminded everyone that the 14th Amendment grants any one born in the US the right to automatic Citizenship.
Our modern politicians however try to always be politically-correct, But it doesn’t mean that what we do in 2014 will not be condemned by future analysts.
Now, no body in congress talks about the “yellow menace”, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the inner mechanisms that decide who gets to stay or who goes back are free of dark motivations.
Contrary to accusations of all sorts, most illegal immigrants just want to lead a “normal” life and they often times work more than the average citizen whose ancestors luckily migrated a few decades earlier. Many manage to maintain for years the same job, they send their children to school (since 80% of them have children born in this country), and avoid problems altogether in order to keep a quiet, discreet presence. The cry that illegal take away peoples jobs is founded only on vague sentiments, since the vast majority of jobs that undocumented people sweat under are those most citizens don’t even want or know it exists.
The Social Security Administration estimates that an astonishing 75% of all undocumented immigrants are paying their taxes, since they are officially on legal payrolls at their jobs. It’s sardonic or just twisted then that someone who pays their taxes gets arrested and deported by cops that get paid through public taxes.
They pay sales taxes, income taxes and property taxes as well but since they unfortunately use false social security numbers they can never, ever reclaim a dollar from any of the billions the undocumented have contributed to social security.
As Democratic Representative Luis Gutierrez, from Illinois has clearly said about the annual deportations that aside from the convicted criminals that obviously should be removed, “we must also realize that among these … Are parents and breadwinners … That are assets to American communities and have committed no crimes.”
70% of Latino voted to put Obama in office, yet his administration continues to break records and deport undocumented people more than any other president. Around 33,000 people get detained daily and this deeply hurts the Latino community and leaves scars on the many thousands of families that break apart and dissolve because of absurd quotas.
The discussion on immigration topics are usually split 50-50. Common sense, comprehensive immigration reform, as promised back in 2013 by Obama is beginning to feel like the carrot tied in front that we’ll never reach. Time shouldn’t be wasted. It’s urgent that the honest immigrants get filtered out before they keep getting punished for what the solitary criminals do.
The sudden wave of migrant children being sent to cross the border is extremely hurtful for those families in Central America that sell everything they own to afford passages into the US. And for the minors themselves, since on the way they are exposed to dangers in the wilderness. The deportations should be handled in the most humane, respectful and careful manner, since most are innocent children after all. However, the administration should find ways to discourage the unlawful act of entering illegally, since part of the recent rush is based on misinformation, which most of the time arises out of lack of communication.
PS: I’ve seen children begging for food in Central America, but some choose to work with their families, selling things on the street like the kids in the photo. Its an honest way of making money. Tragically, they are sometimes mugged and robbed of their small earnings. Violence in Latin America is thus the biggest concern, from the big drug carters to the small, street delinquents.