Friday, May 31, 2019

Illegal Immigration & Reality

Every morning I wake up and go through a routine. One of them is checking social media to see which of my friends / family are either in the hospital or frolicking on a beach somewhere. One of the social media accounts is Twitter and one of the people I follow is Donald Trump. I figure if he starts WWIII this will be first place to find out about it. So Donald posts the attached video to his most recent tweet and I sat there watching it, but I didn't have the reaction to it that 'The Donald' had intended.

Here are over a thousand immigrants crossing into the United States. However, something struck me as odd about the video. I am sure it is not doctored and shows what actually happened. These people are crossing the river, going under a fence....and then they just stand there.

They don't scatter in all directions hoping not to get caught. They all just wait. Wait for Border Patrol to come and pick them up. They are not running off to steal our jobs, rape our women or sell us drugs. They wait. Why would any person do that? Maybe...for the first time in their memory they feel safe?

I don't get the impression that they are subversives or criminals. I get the impression that they are running for their lives. Running from a place or situation where they lived in so much fear, that walking a 1,000 miles with their children is a valid option.

This is happening all over the world. In the Europe, in Asia, in Africa and here in the United States. It is a global problem, due to environmental change and political unrest from despots that abuse their own people for the sake of personal gain and power. Ponder this: How bad would it have to get HERE in the United States, to make you walk all the way to Venezuela with your family in tow, just to survive?

And these are the people that we want to build a wall to keep out?

As I used to lament when I worked for the State of Arizona, "They focus on treating the symptom, and not addressing the illness." A concerted and honest effort to improve their lives where they live is the answer, not building barriers. History is littered with that mistake. Instead of building barriers, we should be giving economic incentives to governments to change their ways and provide for their people, not chase them out of their country. This is what foreign policy is for. Subtle regime change in the long term or violent regime change in the short term (that is what the military is for).

I see huddled masses here yearning for a life free of fear. Donald's response is, "Go back home and die."

So go ahead and build your wall and hide from the rest of world's problems. History has shown time and time again that this does not work and leads to disaster.

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