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Tuesday, January 09, 2018

Shameful

On the Statue of Liberty a striking phrase has brought hope to millions of immigrants:

"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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"


In 2001, following a terrible earthquake in El Salvador, thousands of Salvadorans were given special visas to come live in the United States. By all accounts, some 15 years later, they have become model citizens, had children and made new lives. The Trump administration would now send those people back to a country from which they fled. Their children, born in the United States would have to go along or remain behind.

In 2014, Secretary of State Clinton defended the decision to deport children from Honduras who had been sent on dangerous journeys by their parents in order to find a better life in the United States. Most found their way to relatives already living in the states. Other children, having grown up in the United States and knowing no other country, but who happen to be the children of undocumented people, now risk being returned to the country of their parents even though they identify as Americans, have never known any other country, and loved this country. All have in common that they were made a promise (DACA) they could stay.

It is argued that these people should have gotten in line and done the paperwork like our ancestors. That there were no lines and barely any paperwork then is hardly considered.

Have we as Americans lost all our humanity? These are precisely the kinds of people we need, hard-working, loyal (many have served in the armed forces), solid taxpayers. Instead of the solace promised by the Statue of Liberty, we kick them out, no doubt a sure way to build a wonderful relationship with them in the future. They have become political pawns in an immoral game of chicken between two political parties who have abandoned the principles of the Statue. This is not a partisan problem; both parties have jettisoned compassion. Shame on us.

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