Illegal Immigrants -- What to do?

WHY do so many Mexicans risk death to cross the border into this country illegally (see http://catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=37429)?  I’ll tell you why.  NAFTA*.  The lifting of tariffs on imports of agricultural products to Mexico means that Iowa-grown corn, for example, is cheaper than Mexican-grown corn in Mexico.  Mexican farmers can no longer support their families by selling their produce in the local marketplace.  The foreign imports are cheaper!  (When’s the last time you visited Wal*Mart?)

So, out of work, with their families starving, they risk dying in the desert to find work in America, so they can send the money back to their wives and kids in Mexico... so they can buy AMERICAN corn to eat.

 

What happens when your company lays you off because its product is undersold by China?  Will you try to sneak into China to find work so that YOUR FAMILY WON’T STARVE?  No, you won’t because THIS government takes care of you with unemployment benefits, helps you find another job, gives you food stamps.  Mexico doesn’t.

When I hear anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric, it makes me think of Stalinist Russia, where dissenters were exiled to Siberia.  I am an American and a patriot and I would really dearly love to see this country return to the principles upon which it was founded.  That ALL people are created equal and have certain inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Our Constitution doesn’t limit rights to citizens.  It extends them to ALL people.  Notice the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty, our symbol of democracy: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

What happened?  What changed?  Why have we become so selfish that we cannot share our wealth with the tired, the poor, the huddled masses... those that labor and are heavy laden, the starving, the sick, the destitute...?  Besides an American patriot, I am a Christian... one who follows Christ and believes in the principles He taught. 

Salvation through Jesus Christ isn’t limited to citizens either.  It’s extended to all peoples.  Didn’t Jesus say, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11.28)?  Sounds a little like that Statue of Liberty inscription, doesn’t it? 

Turn to Luke, chapter 6.  Read verse 31
[31] And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

And here’s something that shows how our behavior on earth affects our life in Eternity...  from Matthew, chapter 25...
[31] When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
[32] And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
[33] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
...
[41] Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
[42] For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
[43] I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
[44] Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
[45] Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

We need immigration reform.  A change in the laws that WELCOMES the STRANGER with compassion.  Why should we give our business to the “Made in China” folks?  Let’s build up this country with hard working immigrants... which we ALL are!  Unless you’re a pure blood Native American, you and your ancestors are.. European, Asian, Hispanic, African, Polynesian, or some variation or mix of the above.  Let’s bring this country back to its CHRISTIAN principles and welcome the stranger, the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.  Feed them, clothe them, house them, heal them, forgive them... welcome them.  There’s plenty here to share.

Respectfully and compassionately submitted.

Randy Jones

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement#cite_note-37
Impact on Mexican farmers

In 2000, U.S. government subsidies to the corn sector totaled $10.1 billion. These subsidies have led to charges of dumping which jeopardizes Mexican farms and the country's food self-sufficiency.

Other studies reject NAFTA as the force responsible for depressing the incomes of poor corn farmers, citing the trend's existence more than a decade before NAFTA's existence, an increase in maize production after NAFTA went into effect in 1994, and the lack of a measurable impact on the price of Mexican corn due to subsidized corn coming into Mexico from the United States, though they agree that the abolition of U.S. agricultural subsidies would benefit Mexican farmers.^[37] According to Graham Purchase in Anarchism and Environmental Survival, NAFTA could cause "the destruction of the ejidos (peasant cooperative village holdings) by corporate interests, and threatens to completely reverse the gains made by rural peoples in the Mexican Revolution."