Make no mistake, we must control our borders. This is the right and the responsibility of every nation. However, as with virtually any endeavor, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. As it presently is constituted and operates, ICE is the wrong way.
A border wall is the wrong way too. As Robert Frost wrote, “Something there is that does not love a wall". Frost was correct. Those who think a border will stop the flow of illegal immigration, respectfully, are delusional. A border wall might slow the entry of illegal immigrants, but it will not stop them. Just as the Berlin Wall failed, a border wall can be climbed over, gone around, gone under, or gone through. Eventually, all walls come crumbling down.
So, how to we limit illegal immigration? First, we need to rewrite our immigration laws from top to bottom. We are a nation of immigrants; and today, we need new immigrants more than any time in over a century. Our birth rate is projected to fall below our death rate by 2033.
This means several things. Without immigration, we have a shrinking population. This means jobs we will not have the people to fill the jobs we need to fill to have a strong economy. As our population ages and life expectancy increases, retirees will spend their retirement incomes on long postponed leisure activities like travel and recreation, as well as increased health care. Where will the needed doctors, nurses, technicians and health researchers come from without immigrants? These factors, and others, will increase the creation of new jobs. But, with our declining birth rates, where will workers to fill these jobs come from? Immigration!
We are a nation of immigrants. “In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” But we (Anglos and Hispanics) were not the first immigrants to the “New World”. Even “Native Americans” immigrated here from some place else. Despite our being a nation of immigrants, the prejudice against immigrants is long and often bloody.
Yet, look at the wonderful nation all of these immigrants created. Where would we be, how could we have built this fantastic economic system (and yes, it is far from perfect), without, for example, the immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries? We had about 18 million immigrants between 1890 and 1920. They built our economy, and provided the manpower needed to defeat the Nazis and Japanese in World War II. Thankfully, today, both Germany and Japan are our allies. Enemies can become our friends. Immigrants will become our friends if we just let them.
We should open our border and welcome those who want to come here to work and contribute to our wonderful nation. They need us, and we definitely need them.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Samuel Freeman, a writer and researcher, Viet Nam Veteran, and former university professor based in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian with the permission of the author. Freeman can be reached by email via: srfree1542@icloud.com
