Volume 6, Issue 25
This is a result of people who are desperate to get into America. They seek political asylum. Their desire is to escape poverty, violence, crime, and a dangerous family environment. This desire is the universal hope of all parents. Their cause is to provide a better life for their children. Their perception is that the United States not only will provide opportunity, but safety.
In this case, perception is reality.
The national debate has immediately denigrated into bitter, acrimonious name-calling. The Trump Administration has implemented a “zero-tolerance policy” that President Trump claims is mandated by laws passed by a Democratic Congress. The national press is hysterical in their condemnation of his decision. Progressives and intellectuals are unified in their attack on President Trump. They lament that his policy to separate children from parents (foreign nationals) presenting themselves illegally at the border seeking asylum is strictly of his own decision.
The President has not been helpful in clarifying the situation. On one hand, the Administration claims that the President has no option but to enforce the law. But on the other hand, other Administration officials have indicated that a comprehensive immigration law must be passed to cure the country’s flawed immigration policy. Such legislation would include a border wall. This has the flavor of barter, using children to get a better immigration deal from Congress.
It is the President’s position that if you present yourself illegally at the border, you are breaking the law. Therefore, you must be processed as a potential felon. In this proceeding, children are separated from their parents until such criminal determination can be made. The law has been on the books for some time. In the past, children were not separated. Until 2003, the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service sought relatives inside the United States to whom they could release the separated children. Oftentimes those relatives were, in fact, undocumented aliens. However, no questions were asked in the transfer of custody. The government attempted to assure a familial relationship.
The Trump Administration has delegated this process to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Undocumented aliens are fearful of claiming unaccompanied or stranded minors. Because of this, separated children are remaining under government care for extended periods of time. Government custody is humanitarian. They are providing all physical needs of food, shelter, clothing and medical care. Yet nothing can totally alleviate the tension of being separated. This emotional trauma is in addition to a perilous journey of at times hundreds of miles led by malevolent smugglers with little or no consideration for children.
Immigration policy in the United States over the past two decades has only been marginally enforced. Congress has pretended to have an immigration policy, and those seeking citizenship have pretended to respect it. Now, the Trump Administration is serious about strictly enforcing immigration laws. All of a sudden, progressives scream ‘intolerance.’ It has never been their intention to truly enforce the borders. Neither party, Democrat or Republican, is being totally truthful with the American public in regards to their immigration strategy. Both are hypocritical in their finger-pointing.
Because of invective recriminations on all sides of the political debate, President Trump is not trusted by intellects to execute a national unifying policy. The President is determined not to continue the charade of supporting an immigration policy that does not solve the border security problem. He should have explained this in greater detail. An official of the Administration should have been present to personally demonstrate that the children’s safety and well-being are a priority. FEMA legally could have been engaged by Executive Order to provide services in this special situation.
The reality that must be addressed is that people will risk everything to get into the United States. What is the motivation for this? How is this human condition to be properly managed? And how do we solve the problem with human compassion and love for one another?
An Analysis of Cause and Effect
Government persecution, corruption, drug lord violence, and lack of government services have left certain citizens of decaying societies with the unacceptable choice between risking everything to flee their homes or staying and watching in fear their children and family struggle. This may sound like a sweeping statement, but no refugee is seeking asylum or opportunity in a communist country or a country ruled by a dictator. They are moving west and north. The United States can take some credit in the realization that most disaffected people of the world want to come to America.
In the geopolitical global system of sovereigns, counsel must be taken in reference to the obligation to respect the hopes, the dreams, and the dignity of all human beings. European nations work with Turkey to provide resources and trade agreements that will help Turkey stabilize its population. In North America, Mexico has a responsibility to stabilize its own population. In the national outcry, little is mentioned that Mexico could be doing more to monitor traffickers and provide basic citizens’ needs. The corruption and gang violence in Latin America have reached unacceptable levels. The governments appear unable or unwilling to enforce laws.
The United States is left to take the lead in directing multinational efforts to lift all citizens out of poverty and to provide a safe and healthy environment.
The United Nations was designed to be a forum of universal policy acceptance. It has failed in this mandate. This is largely because, as a body, it ignores the existence of corruption. And further, member nations resist the transparency of free enterprise. The United States singularly runs an open constitutional system expensing, as a cost of doing business, relationships with other nations that abuse their own citizens. We preach constitutional rights while other nations pursue tribal canons.
Metaphorically, the point is this. When surveying the scene of a homeless population living under a bridge in a metro area of America, the conditions found are deplorable. Mental illness, malnutrition, and drug abuse may be contributing factors to the conditions. Dirty needles circulating among the population in the use of drugs is common. Officials do not demand that the government provide clean needles as the sole solution. The bigger problem of all elements must be addressed.
And, so it is with immigration.
It is interesting that Romans 13:1-7 is part of the debate. Attorney General Jeff Sessions quoted this Bible verse in justification of enforcement of the law. Progressives have used other Bible verses in an effort to prove that this passage was taken out of context. They argue that the Christian faith decrees compassion.
We are at least, as a nation, again debating God’s laws in reference to our nation policy.
Jesus said, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Perhaps government has a role in this crisis and society has an equal role. Recently, Houston experienced a 500-year flood. Thousands of volunteers stormed to the area to help fellow citizens in the relief effort. Entire neighborhoods were reconstructed in a matter of weeks. After Hurricane Irma hit Florida, utility companies from as far away as Des Moines, Iowa and Austin, Texas provided trucks to communities to reestablish electrical service. In each case, citizens did not stand back and demand that the government solely alleviate the crisis.
It is estimated that just over 12,000 children are being detained. This is not an unmanageable number for charitable organizations in our country to support. The Church partnering with the government could establish processing centers for health care and adoption. These children require medical exams, vaccinations, or other special needs. The children could be assured that they will be reunited with their parents, transferred to a family member for custody, or nurtured in a loving environment until a determination can be made.
A nation has every right to secure its borders. The humanitarian obligation to take in as many dispossessed people as possible must be balanced with process and procedure. All lifeguards have been trained that, when approaching a drowning person, they must not allow the individual in desperation to grab hold of them or climb over them. The person in jeopardy must be approached from behind and secured, or both the rescuer and the one in peril may drown.
America’s Role
In America today, we are not appropriately cognizant of the hope we present to the world. It is not our prosperity, our entertainment, or our opportunity that is the ultimate draw for citizenship. It is our faith, our constitution, and our commitment to freedom that results in the aforesaid attributes and the ultimate dignity of the human spirit that all people desire.
Today, American families are separated, many times generationally, by a lack of understanding of the great heritage that we hold and protect for the dreams of the world. The United States is ordained by a Manifest Destiny of freedom which does not just relate to North America, but to the entire world. This is the core of our essential being which should bind us in purpose and generations. Our beacon of liberty naturally compels people to risk everything to pursue a personal destiny. This pursuit is worth the risk of everything to them.
In finding balance between enforcement of law and compassion for our fellow man, may we focus on the purity of our political creed with the commitment to administer justice to all citizens of the world. It is our nation’s mission to honor our promise to the world, “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
In this mission accomplished, may all our families separated be reunited.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?