“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “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-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 1
Those are words that bring to mind one of the most famous symbols of American freedom—the Statue of Liberty—as well they should. But could it be that in recent times the words inscribed upon the Statue have been forgotten?
Our country was founded by immigrants, both legal and illegal. In accordance with the custom of the time, as long as you were a free white man, you could become a citizen. Over the years, however, the borders of this nation gradually tightened, and fewer immigrants were allowed to enter. During the time of Ellis Island, if you did not pass a medical examination, you were denied entry. By the World War II era, the government only allowed a specific number of immigrants from each country or faith or gender into the United States.
Current immigration laws place a limit on the number of visas that are available each year. An application for a visa could take years to be granted. Those with family members who are already United States citizens and those with needed skills are granted higher priority.2 The process by which one becomes a United States citizen is a long and tedious one, causing many people to resort to crossing the border illegally.
What of these illegal immigrants? Currently, many hold jobs that legal citizens have little interest in taking, but the penalty for being discovered by United States officials is deportation. Those who are deported often try again to enter illegally and many—perhaps even most—succeed. However, the United States Congress is presently hearing a bill that would create a 698 mile long wall between the border of the United States and Mexico, as well as strengthen penalties for illegals.3, 4
This current policy certainly does not seem to be affected by Emma Lazarus’s cry to bring in the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Yet, at the same time, even the most liberal reformer will agree that something is wrong with the present system. The status quo is not working for anyone, American or illegal.
Hence, we have three options: Seal the border entirely, open the border entirely, or some compromise between the two. Sealing the border is, quite simply, an impractical and excessively harsh, authoritarian measure reminiscent of the Berlin Wall which America battled so stridently in past decades. As it stands, we have immigrants so desperate to depart the oppressive social and economic conditions of their native lands that they make boats of washtubs and attempt to sail across the ocean to the shining beacon of prosperity that is the United States.
On the other hand, it is equally foolish to simply open the borders to any scoundrel who wishes to cause mischief. A porous border is an invitation to terrorists, drug runners, ne’er-do-wells, and other negative influences on the lives of border-dwellers and the nation as a whole. A closed mind is bad, but open your mind too far and your brains fall out. So it is with the border.
The solution, then, must consider and balance both justice and mercy, security and freedom, resolve and compassion. Many illegals have simply come to the United States looking for a better life. Surely, as in past times, the honest, hardworking, and loyal should be permitted to freely join our society and make this nation greater. Why the quotas? If someone is willing to put the effort in to become an American, then let him be an American! There is no point in forcing him to starve for years in his native country simply because some pompous legislator felt that only x amount of Mexicans could immigrate this year.
Give the goodly folk a legal recourse, and the only ones left to deal with will be the bad guys. By all means, we should put forth our best efforts into securing the border… but why secure it against those with the best of intentions? The American way has always been one of generosity, where life and liberty and self-determination have the highest value, where it is better that a guilty man walk free than that an innocent hang from the gallows. The same decency of spirit should apply to the issue of illegal immigration.
Let the good flow freely in. Shut the bad out. It’s the Christian thing to do. It’s just the just thing to do. It’s the right thing to do.
Sources:
1 http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/LIBERTY/lazaruspoem.html
2 http://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/immvisa.htm
3 http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Apr/20060416Feat006.asp
4 http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20051216-125650-9667r.htm
I do recall something about the Lord telling the Israelites to be merciful to sojourners, “for they too were once strangers in the lands of Egypt.”
He also told them to enslave the Gibeonites…