(previously published November 22, 2018)
The Latinos are coming! The Latinos are coming!
Whatever your feelings about immigration and immigrants, this country has a problem with controlling its borders while remaining the world’s beacon of freedom and opportunity. This is a difficult balancing act and easy to get wrong.
Right now, we have groups of people approaching our southern border, determined to essentially bypass our border controls and immigration laws and enter our country. Once allowed in and given a hearing date, most will probably disappear into our cities, never to be heard from again unless they commit a crime and are caught.
I am sure that some of these people would qualify for asylum status due to threats, political and otherwise, that make continued life in their homeland a virtual death sentence or something nearly as bad. The rest are basically wanting to immigrate to this country for the opportunity to have a better life for themselves and their families. We must acknowledge as well that some are leaving behind a criminal past that they fully intend to resume once they are here.
A billion people and more, from many countries around the world, would like to live in this country. We don’t have room or opportunities for all of them. Our long-term challenge is to help these other countries develop their own opportunities for their own people so that their own people don’t feel so compelled and driven to leave home and come here. My general impression is that most people would prefer to stay in their own country with family, friends, and familiar customs if they feel safe and can achieve a basic standard of living. We should be helping to make this happen.
For the short term, however, we need to address what is happening right now. We must find a way to manage these groups of oncoming people in a humane manner that prevents all but the most deserving of asylum from forcing themselves into our country.
President Trump is right to want to deny asylum to anyone who does not respect our laws and wants to enter our country where there is no border control. We need everyone to come in through the front door, not breaking into the cellar.
The courts are right that President Trump does not have the unilateral authority to change the applicable immigration laws to accomplish this. Laws are passed by the Congress, the legislative branch of the government. The executive branch has the responsibility to carry out laws once passed.
Given the pathetic state of our partisan politics, and given my healthy skepticism, it is hard for me to imagine our senators and representatives working in a non-partisan basis to change this one thing that is urgently needed right now.
However, this is what they must do. Learn to work together to change one thing at a time.
Forget about funding the wall, forget about protecting the dreamers, forget about chain migration. Return to these issues later. Right now, address the issue of how we handle people who want to claim asylum or wish to immigrate so that we protect our best interests and prevent our country from becoming a free-for-all destination for the world.