Fears and Dreams

This morning I saw a post on FB by someone who is a real life friend. Someone I would actually hug if i met them (which, if you know me, is rare). The post decried the fact that illegal immigrants are being used by big business. They are being paid too little and not given benefits or decent working conditions.

I wanted to comment "Amen! This is exactly why we need to end illegal immigration" but then I got to thinking. This person is a self-professed liberal. I know that if I posted such a thing I would be immediately attacked by the person's friends, called names, and the whole thread would go up in flames. Perhaps this person would even unfriend me, and certainly it would make it awkward (at best) when next we met in real life.

So I said nothing and moved on. I have two things to say about that (well, probably more, we'll see).

First off, I am saddened that I can't have a discussion with people, who I am otherwise good friends with,  about basically anything important in life, or in current events. Yes, I know, this was on FB, but I know (or at least I'm pretty sure) in real life the conversation wouldn't go much better. It would certainly be more polite, but the end result would be the same. At best, disappointment. At worst, "unfriending." I have a (short) list of relatives and friends for whom this has happened with me.

Why is it that so many people can't associate with people who have different views from them? Are people so shallow that they say "I love you, but only if you believe 'X' and 'Y' and not 'Z'?" There seems to be mode of though that says if I believe Z or fail to believe X or Y, then I am an 'A' (substitute your favorite bad person word there - bigot, hater, idiot, denier).

Nobody cares enough to find out why I believe 'Z' and don't believe 'X' and 'Y'. Nobody cares enough to say "even though we disagree you are still a good person." How petty! How narrow minded have we as a society become? Free speech, but only for me, because your speech is not "tolerant."

I could rant but onto point number 2. Immigration. I would normally be on the side of the immigrants, except for a few things. One is the way illegals get treated (low wages, poor working conditions, no benefits, etc.). Another is the horror stories coming out all the time. People found dying in Walmart parking lots, mass graves near the border. Stories of robberies and rapes of people trying to cross the border.

By supporting illegal immigration you are saying "I don't want to stop these things from happening." Now I'm not saying that people want these things to happen, or are supporting them, but when you create a "black market" for US residency, you surely can't expect there not to be black marketeers.

"Well, lock up the criminals who are doing this to the illegal immigrants!" you say? Then how would they get here, without the coyotes and human traffickers? The solution we should all agree on is to stop illegal immigration! If there is no illegal immigration, there is no reason to take people's money, kill them, rape them, or lock them in trailer trucks in 100 degree weather. There is no reason to pay them low wages and give them poor working conditions.

"What about the people already here?" you say? Give them a path. I propose we give illegal immigrants some amount of time (6 months, say) to register as illegals. Their cases would be considered and they could be vetted and either made legal immigrants or deported. Anyone who didn't register after the deadline would be deported on sight. But make the laws and let them work. Operating outside the law perpetuates a scenario where justice cannot operate, and the weak will be preyed upon. Surely everyone can see that.

But then again, maybe not. It seems too many people consider their world view more important than the world.

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So let it be written...

Nancy Pelosi says the story of Moses should be our model for welcoming immigrants. Once again she shows her ignorance of her faith.

First off, Moses was not an illegal alien. Rather, he was a child of the slave class slated to die because there were "too many of *those*" people." So the story is more analogous to Margaret Sanger (or Ruth Bader-Ginsburg or Nancy Pelosi herself) on abortion.

But let's overlook that and pretend the story is an analogue. Does she realize that the Egyptian Empire was basically destroyed by "welcoming" Moses into their household? Then what lesson are we supposed to apply to our dealings with illegal immigrant children? Kill them all or America will be destroyed?

Realize I am not suggesting we do this, I'm just saying that is the only lesson that makes sense if you want to compare your government to the Egyptian Empire and your President to Pharaoh. Maybe that's what she meant - I recall Pharaoh issuing a lot of executive orders. "So let it be written... so let it be done!"

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The Spiritual Implications of AZ's immigration law

Several years ago I joined a group interested in immigrants' rights. After all, the bishops teach us we should "welcome the stranger."  I'll admit, my activities were limited to reading an occasional email or article from the group and little else. However, Arizona's immigration law has opened the floodgates of news. Every day I read more and more articles like this one from American Catholic. The article (and many more like it) make it sound like a mortal sin to support any sort of immigration law.

Jesus ranked welcoming the stranger with feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison. He said that those who don't do that "will go off to eternal punishment" (Mt 25:46).

To read some of these articles all we have to do is give these people free health care and rewrite all the signs in Spanish and we can all live happily as brothers and sisters. Other articles argue that the economy would collapse. But are the only sides to the issue "friendliness" vs. economics? What about the spiritual side of the equation?

I recently listened to a podcast titled "The Spiritual Implications of Illegal Immigration" by Jesse Romero. Mr. Romero is an immigrant himself, and has may immigrant relatives, both legal and illegal. He speaks from the heart about the spiritual dangers of allowing illegal immigration.

It is typically the case, according to Mr. Romero, that the illegal immigrant is a poor young father from a rural community. He scrimps and saves to raise the money to be smuggled over the border into America. There he lives, cut off from his wife and children. He does not speak the language, so there are no opportunities for him to enter American society. Instead, he lives in an isolated world, usually sharing an apartment with other illegal immigrants.

Between the low wages he is paid and the need to send money home to Mexico, he must find work every day as a day laborer. If he is not lucky enough to find work that day, he must work as a homosexual prostitute at night in order to be able to eat.

Alone and lonely, he eventually finds a woman, abandons his faith, and lives in sin. Meanwhile, his wife is left without a husband, and eventually without money, because he stops sending it to her. His children grow up without the love an guidance of a father. They turn to gangs and drugs to find protection and income. A family of souls has been destroyed.

For women it's even worse. The price for crossing the border always involves prostituting herself. If she is lucky, after the border crossing she winds up like the men, alone and helpless in a strange place. If she is not, the "coyotes" (those who smuggle the immigrants) hold her, addict her to drugs, and force her into prostitution permanently. More souls ruined.

I think we do desperately need immigration laws that are more just than the ones on the books, but we are not making things more just by failing to enforce the laws we already have. Simply giving these people a "path to citizenship" flaunts our laws, admits that we have no will to enforce law, treats people unfairly (an influx of Mexicans means restricting immigration elsewhere). But more importantly, it would still promote prostitution, drug trade and the breakup of families. Furthermore I have no confidence that our federal government (and I mean all three branches of the federal government) are interested (other than capitalizing on it for campaign purposes) in or capable of improving the situation.

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