IMMIGRATION: Times have changed

The battle over the wall and open borders continues. One side says it’s all about “Christian love.” The other side claims the same. Funny how both sides innately know that Christian love is vitally important to this discussion. But I am growing weary of hearing the contention that people who think like me “are not acting in Christian love.”

I am on the side that supports a wall and legal immigration only. Contrary to what is often espoused by the opposition, our desire for the wall (along with other means to control immigration, such as e-verify and increased border patrol) is not about hate, bigotry or racism. It isn’t about a lack of love, or being selfish with our resources and freedom. Nor is it about ignoring Christian values. The truth is, we do have a crisis at our southern border and what is happening at this time in history is something different than we have ever before experienced.

America’s first immigration law wasn’t established until 1882. People were free to come to our nation without any challenges from our government. Our ancestors were legal, because there was no opportunity to be illegal. The message on the statue of liberty is a beautiful part of our history. The poem engraved there that is so often quoted these days was written in 1883 as a means to generate funds so that the statue might be placed on a pedestal.

“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!”

This poem is being inappropriately referenced these days as a call for open borders. Though we now have more immigration laws, (because we have to) this is still who America is at heart! America issues 1.2 million green cards per year. That is extremely generous; graciously benevolent. But things change. Laws change. Laws are enacted due to challenges that are bound to occur through passing time and changing attitudes. Once those laws are created, they must be enforced. We cannot allow a break-down of our rule of law. To allow a disintegration in this area, regardless of how well meaning, is to invite it in every area. And that is extremely damaging. Precedents are set that will leave us with many future problems. We simply cannot allow that to happen.

How is this issue different now than before? Never before in our history have we had such an influx of aliens coming at one time, without any intention of following even one of our laws regarding immigration. If they do not respect our nation enough to come legally, they certainly aren’t going to respect it enough to assimilate and care about our Constitution and culture. Further, is this fair to those who have worked diligently to come legally?

Never before have we experienced demands on our society and culture that are now being made. Immigrants used to come expecting to work and assimilate. They wanted to fit in. We all know those stories. But that is no longer the case with what we see coming across our borders today.

They come today expecting to get on our welfare roles, depleting our resources. Welfare, in fact, didn’t begin until 1935, expanding in the 1960s. Immigrants of the past came looking to better themselves - to work and contribute to our society.

We are 22 trillion dollars in debt. We are not even able to take care of our own. We have homelessness in our streets, some of them Veterans. If we do not have a strong society economically, we certainly won’t be able to help others.

We cannot continue to let people from southern nations believe they can come and get everything free - college, medical, and food stamps. Of course that compels them to come. But this is an extremely risky trek, only to be turned away; even more unsafe, is an attempt to sneak across the border. Women and children are being raped. Disease is rampant and they become more ill with travel. If truth be told, there ARE a high number of criminals among them. The apprehension about criminals crossing isn’t only about protecting OUR citizens - of course that must be considered! But the alarm is also about those who are being raped and abused along the way. Our concern comes from Christian compassion and love. Please don’t distort it into only being about care of ourselves, though our own citizens’ safety absolutely must be priority. That’s the first job of government.

Finally, never before has there been the degree of human trafficking and drug smuggling that we are seeing at our southern border. We have all heard about the exorbitant amounts of fentanyl and other illicit drugs being smuggled.

A desire for a secure border is not about racism or hate. It’s about defending the rule of law, our economy, values and culture. It’s about protecting our own citizens from a dangerous element that many refuse to recognize. And it is about compassion that many do not want to acknowledge because of their own scheming agenda.

No hate here; only Christian love. No one does more for the downtrodden than America, but we are not going to be forever able to take care of the world. More importantly, when we offer our aid, an expectation to respect America and who we are is obligatory.