They will come to the US no matter what. If they themselves are turned away, they will become desperate and send their children unaccompanied. If claiming asylum isn’t possible, they will return to doing everything in their power to evade the border guards. They climb over the border wall and cut holes in it. They cross the most dangerous jungles on the planet. They will keep coming.
Immigration is one of the most intractable problems America has ever faced. Options are few. We can revert to Operation Wetback–a permanent stain on America’s history. We can do nothing, and see communities with resources stretched past the breaking point and hostilities are on the rise. What America can’t do is just send them back home. They will simply come back. Mass deportations may work for a little while, but in the end, people will do what they have to do to have a better life. As long as there is poverty, oppression, and desperation in other parts of the world, and prosperity in America, people will come.
We do have another option. Listen to business and civic leaders who say they need immigrant labor. See immigrants as an asset in combating shortages in some of our most important economic sectors. Work with rural communities whose populations are dwindling.
I live in Iowa–a rural state with rural America problems. For a lot of the small towns around me, that means a declining population. With few good jobs, young people go to college and never return to their hometowns. As manufacturing jobs dried up and the nature of agriculture changed there were towns that had become essentially dead. In many of those towns, immigrants changed that. They came to work in industrial agriculture–jobs that native-born people were unwilling to work–jobs that weren’t going to convince young people to stay. They brought people, and a tax base. They became entrepreneurs, creating small businesses that flourished. They revitalized downtowns. It is safe to say that there are towns in Iowa that might not exist but for immigrant labor.
At this time of uncertainty; it is important to remember that for all the very real problems that can occur as undocumented people try to enter the country, in the final analysis, America has always emerged stronger for having embraced immigrants. Rather than a burden, they are an opportunity. They work. They pay taxes. They create small businesses. They contribute to making America a better country.
The current immigration system is broken. The answer is not for mothers to carry their children through dangerous jungles to get here, only to be turned away. The answer is to find ways of welcoming people into America without them having to make a desperate journey. It is clear that we need immigrants. Let us open the doors to legal immigration and enjoy its benefits. And know that if more people can hold out hope of being offered a better life legally, they will be less likely to make that desperate journey.
Progressive Without Apology 