A question that pops up is what does an efficient immigration system look like? It depends how you want out of it. I would say there is no such thing as a moral immigration system. The two extremes are closed off borders and open borders. Both are immoral because both would cause a lot of harm to many people. As our border becomes more and more closed off, we are seeing the harm that comes from it. As of today, four kids who migrated here have died in the custody of the U.S. Government. Not moral by any means. Open borders is immoral because it ignores that there are bad entities out there that would take advantage of such. Civilians would be hurt due to this.
Now I must say that both are extreme positions and it would be dishonest to say those are our only options. There are many different ways to make a good immigration system. I like to think the two approaches listed above are a small minority of thought. I hope so. We need to see immigration as the complex topic it is and we should not expect a perfect result or perfect people.
We also have to acknowledge who is coming and why. Today, people are coming to the U.S. from the Northern Triangle - Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. They come for different reasons ranging from droughts to intense violence. Gang violence plagues the region and is responsible for the gruesome violence that has killed thousands of people. If I lived in such conditions I would leave. Many people come through El Paso. It serves as a flashpoint in the immigration debate. We saw many migrants coming through in search for safety.
But I find that to understand why many people are coming from Central America, we need to take a look in history. Back in the Cold War, the U.S. government was so terrified of communism that we overthrew democratically-elected heads of state and replaced them with dictators who were friendly to the U.S. In Guatemala, this sparked a genocide that killed 200,000 people and left 50,000 missing. We don't know where they are, we just know that they are no longer alive. In El Salvador, we trained death squads at the Schools of the Americas who then used their counter-insurgency training to massacre thousands of people. Look at the Massacre at El Mozote. There's a book that describes what occurred and what role the U.S. government had in it.
This is not to say the U.S. is a terrible place.
I love the United States but I believe that out of love for my country, we have to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Our government, while it does not have sole responsibility over the outcome, played a role in throwing the Northern Triangle into chaos. And today when refugees from south of the border come asking for help, we put up a wall. The wall we are putting up is not a solution to the problem. As the region goes further into crisis, more and more people will flee up north. It is very dangerous to try and come up north but coyotes lie to many desperate people telling them that the U.S. will treat them well. If we can't counter that narrative south of the border, more people will try to come here and more will die along the way. I would encourage our embassies in the Northern Triangle to do more to discourage people from trying to come up North.
I got a little political up there and you might not like what I said. I have a comments section below here and I would love to hear your thoughts. Be nice.
In regards to what I saw and the conversations I have had, I have come to see the complexity of immigration with my own eyes. I encourage you to remember that the people coming here are human beings made in the image of God. *If you're an atheist, well, they're still human beings like you.*
How we are treating our friends south of the border is not how we treat friends. There is a lot of potential in Latin America but bad politics is holding it back. Our government should help improve safety and well-being in these countries. Remember, we had a part to play in destabilizing the region. This may be a difficult thing to grasp but to make amends, we should try to help. I have spoken to many Guatemalans and migrants. No one I talked to wanted to leave their homes. The country they left was the home of their ancestors. But who am I to tell someone to stay if they will get murdered? I want Guatemalans to stay in Guatemala and help make it a better place and because brain drain is a real problem. But I won't make someone stay if it will cost them their lives. If we can help make these countries better, less people will leave. We won't save the day with walls, fear, racism, or any of the like. It's a complex problem that requires a complex solution - maybe solutions.
I hope some day we can see the humanity in each other and work to make the world a better place.
May we hold the memories of the four kids who passed away in our custody be of blessed memory and may we solve our problems so that no more kids will pass away.
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