By: Curt Williams
As promised, I am embarking on a set of blog posts that will speak to the most sensitive, divisive, and controversial subjects of our day. These are subjects that most pundits approach with inflammatory soundbites and verbal Molotov cocktails thrown haphazardly into the public discourse, with little regard for the full weight of the subject. Often these subjects pose hard questions that neither side of the debate wants to address, as these questions do not lend themselves to quick diatribes or the personal insults that are really at the heart of their debates.
In this entry, I would like to discuss the immigration issue that not only America faces, but is a divisive, complicated, and challenging situation facing many countries around the globe. Unless you have been intentionally deaf to world affairs, you know that immigration is posing a massive challenge in Europe and Asia, and with the loss of population, to Africa, Asia and portions of Latin America. We in the United States are not alone in this crisis.
For many of us, it is easy for us to take a side when the issue is not directly affecting our lives or our comforts. If you consider yourself a right-leaning individual, you can condemn what you would call illegal immigration, as you are insulated from, and not intimately familiar with the pain, hardships and maybe even the very real threat of death faced by those seeking a better life in America. If you lean to the political and social left, you are well aware of these hazards, yet you have not yet lowered your standard of living or sacrificed any of your comforts to alleviate this suffering, nor have you counted the costs of shouldering this massive load.
Admittedly, it is a gross oversimplification, but I am going to pose my general view of liberals and conservatives: Liberals are those who are focused on emotions, feelings, and the human condition while discounting facts, statistics, and reality; while Conservatives are those who are focused on facts, statistics, and reality while discounting emotions, feelings, and the human condition. As a Christ-follower who follows Jesus for a myriad of reasons, I find it beautiful that Jesus saw the facts, the stats, and the reality while also recognizing the feelings, emotions, and the human condition. Uniquely, He also could tabulate the needs of 5,000 hungry souls and miraculously feed them all from the contents of a kid’s lunchbox. We cannot do that, so we must find ways to be both Conservative and Liberal; yet we fail in this as we are drawn by our “leaders” to eschew unity of thought to pursue division and tribal mudslinging. I choose to reject this path as much as I reject these corrupt leaders.
Now back to the immigration issue…
A couple of years ago I stopped off at a truck stop for gas and a quick meal from the attached Arby’s restaurant. I gassed up the car, parked it in front of the establishment, then went inside and ordered my meal. While waiting, I watched as a large nondescript bus pulled into the parking lot. Out of it spilled about 60 apparently very poor Hispanic men, women and children. Many filed into the truck stop to use the restroom, and a few came into the restaurant. While eating my lunch, I watched as a father ordered a single kid’s meal, then portioned it out to his wife and two small children, taking none for himself. After finishing, I made my way to the bus driver. Upon asking, she told me that they had all made the journey by foot from southern Mexico and were being taken to Georgia. I asked specifically about the family I had been watching, and she had little to tell me other than to say that most had no money and had only been given water and $10 for the trip.
I made my way back over to the family, and not having any real ability to communicate, motioned for the father to join me at the front counter. There I purchased a meal for him and each of his family members, an act that cost me relatively little and yet meant the world to him. Through the bus driver who acted as an interpreter, I asked him about his journey, and he briefly told me of his hopes of gaining a job working on trucks to care for his family. I wished him well as he thanked me incessantly, but it was this poor man who had blessed me. In the parking lot, chasing back tears, I prayed for him and this busload of broken humanity that my Jesus so loved. It was one thing to condemn “illegal immigrants” from my couch while viewing them on television, but to sit and look at this family, and see both the desperation and the hope in this father’s eyes….it got real to me.
We have a broken immigration system. Some apparently want to destroy America and would use an overwhelming number of these desperate people to hasten the demise. We have a corrupt government, and I do not know if we have the power or the ability to vote in a better system or vote in better people to change that fact. Yet these immigrants are not the enemy. Maybe the enemy is the rich men (and women) north of Richmond who are only interested in prolonging this agony and using these souls as political pawns.
A better system is possible. It would begin by securing the border, and yes, that would likely require a wall of sorts. But then that wall should have a lot more “gates”, or a much more efficient and equitable immigration system for those willing and able to come here to contribute to this amazing experiment. Consider this: America could erect immigration/employment offices in major Latin American cities where would-be immigrants could apply and be screened, then given a 5-year work permit. To screen them in their countries only makes sense. A guest worker system should not be confused with those seeking to become Americans, but this system should have been put in place many years ago.
But the nuance is this: We cannot see this as an either/or subject. This challenge is complex. Many of these people are needed here and can be utilized, respected, and valued. But allowing them in, unscreened and undocumented, is foolish beyond measure and hints at criminal negligence on the part of our government. A nation without a border is not much of a nation, and a nation without compassion for those who are desperately in need is a nation that has lost its soul.
On the practical side, we now have millions of foreign nationals among us, the vast majority of whom are going to need long-term governmental assistance from a nation that is $33 trillion in debt (and rising by the minute), so we will either find a better system soon or the present lack of a system will drag our nation into bankruptcy.
So Liberals and Conservatives need to stop fighting, bring their strengths together, and work together to solve this issue.
It is the only way forward, and it is the way that will bless all involved. We cannot depend on the politicians to do it. I invite you to put away your coarse words, your vitriol, and your practiced prejudices. I ask you to look closely at those who spur on division and fan the flames of partisanship. I dare you to look to the Gospels for how to think and react.
Yes, this is a tough puzzle to solve. It will take people of wisdom, patience, understanding… and yes, a lot of nuance.