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A look at immigration
I went on a trip to Washington, D.C., this past week for a South Asian Youth (SAY) conference planning meeting, through the United Methodist Church; south Asian meaning Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi. I joined SAY five years ago while I was in college, mostly to get free trips to New York. As the years passed, I realized I joined a group with the potential to do more than plan conferences for bratty kids every year.
The first year, needless to say, was hard. Here were 12 or so high school to college age kids, with a few adults, trying to plan a national conference from scratch. As each year went on, things got a little easier and we as a leadership team started doing things outside conference planning.
Fast forward to this past weekend. We were looking for fresh ideas for the conference besides the usual fare. We went to the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) and asked for some help. They suggested the leadership team participate in one of their social justice seminars on immigration. It was a lot of information in just a few days. Our days were jam packed with facts, statistics, action planning, Bible study and, my favorite, meeting with our nation’s policy makers to try and bring about change to immigration policy.
When most people think of the word “immigration” they automatically think of illegal immigration issues. There are an estimated 12 to 14 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States. Many of these undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. in search of work and a better life.
While illegal immigration is the central focus of most immigration debates, the issue of legal immigration is also a problem. There are millions of people every year waiting to enter this country legally. Because of quota caps and backlog, they wait on average of six to eight years for a visa. Many families are separated because of either administrative backlog because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services don’t have enough resources to handle the workload or a visa backlog because about a million people are allowed into the U.S. each year.
Ideally, I would love to see a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, but unfortunately, we cannot solve the problem all at once. Our leadership team was given the opportunity to meet with Senators Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., to share our concerns. After speaking with them, I learned there are so many sides and views on this issue, comprehensive reform is not the answer.
Some of the legislators were pro-immigration, while others were anti-immigration, even Democrats. Capito’s stance was solely border enforcement. After grilling Capito’s legislative aide, we basically discovered Capito wanted to build a long fence along the border, or better yet, a wall. That was it, nothing else, just a fence of some kind. I’m sure there was more to Capito’s platform, but that was all the aide could come up with.
The enforcement-only approach does not solve anything. Over the last 20 years the Border Patrol budget inflated to $1.6 billion, a tenfold increase from 1986. The number of hours agents spent patrolling the border grew by a factor of eight. Despite the increase in border patrol enforcement, more than 9 million undocumented immigrants were added to the U.S. population since 1990.
On top of ineffective border patrol enforcement, the thought of a fence or wall is ridiculous. How many examples in history has a wall been built and it eventually failed its purpose? A wall or fence will not keep people out of this country. People will find ways over, under or through it. Not only is a wall ineffective, it’s costly and unnecessary. Building a fence along the entire southwest border would cost roughly $9 billion. That’s right, billion, not million.
I don’t believe we should do away with Border Patrol, we need it to protect ourselves and our country, but it’s only curing a symptom of an underlying disease. We shouldn’t ask ourselves what new ways can we keep people from coming into the country, but instead ask, why are they coming to our country?
Immigrants come to the U.S. legally and illegally to escape oppressive governments, poverty and to find a better life. GBCS is not asking for amnesty and neither am I. I feel the United States should work with these people’s home countries to try to better the living situations. The U.S. likes to tout its power in other countries, so instead of forcefully entering the country to supposedly make it better, the U.S. should work with non-profits, religious institutions and international leaders to help improve the lives of these people. Organizations like Fair Trade strive to create fair working conditions and provide fair profit for agricultural workers.
Migrant worker programs, like the one at Monsanto, should also be commended in cutting the numbers of undocumented workers. By providing papers, good seasonal work, housing and health care, those seeking work can find jobs under humane conditions.
Even if the living conditions improve, people will still want to come to the U.S. Currently, only one million people are let into the country. In reality, the U.S. needs about three million immigrants to fill jobs in the U.S. workforce. One of the issues the leadership team touched upon was the fact that many Americans don’t recognize what a contribution immigrants have made to this country.
My brother and I are children of immigrants. My father came from Pakistan and my mother came from the Philippines. My father is a Methodist minister; my mother was a teacher; and my brother does microbiology research. Immigrants are our doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, engineers, skilled laborers and business owners. Diversity in our country is a benefit for our society and economy.
As a person of faith, I also believe diversity is a benefit for humanity. Living in a diverse world can bring about understanding, understanding can eventually bring about change. Also, as a person of faith, I agree with GBCS when it refers to Leviticus 19: 33-34, “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”
Ultimately, I believe that is the one thing many of us forget. With the exception of Native Americans, everyone had an ancestor that was, at one point, an immigrant in this country. Our nation’s history is a testament to the benefits of immigration. Through the years, ethic groups arrived to the U.S. looking for hope and prosperity. Each group contributed their strengths and cultures to the U.S. to make our nation a richer place.
For more information on SAY visit the Web site at www.sayministry.org. For more information on the General Board of Church and Society visit the Web site at www.umc-gbcs.org.