The border immigration crisis is now a battle of images –tear gassing of women and children and the lawlessness of rushing to break through police lines and scale barriers.
California has taken a clear policy stand on immigration passing laws to aid immigrants in the country, legal and illegal. Predictably, those politicians who have been leaders in the immigration debate attacked the use of tear gas.
State senator Kevin de León tweeted, “We cannot brag about the American Dream while this dystopian nightmare unfolds at our border. My own mother crossed that same border decades ago. I often wonder if I would be here today if she had been forced to endure such violence.”
Governor-elect Gavin Newsom on Twitter wrote, “These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas. Women and children who left their lives behind — seeking peace and asylum — were met with violence and fear. That’s not my America. We’re a land of refuge. Of hope. Of freedom. And we will not stand for this.”
If we don’t stand for what happened then what do we do? No suggestions are offered.
There was no mention of the attempt to break through the barriers and avoid legal procedures. Do we open the gates? Do we aid the Mexican government in caring for the asylum seekers outside our borders?
What to do is not an easy question for our country that is recognized as a humane place but is built on a foundation of laws.
The Wall Street Journal editorial page, no friend of President Trump’s immigration policy stated, “the tragedy is that such lawlessness will undermine support for legal asylum in the U.S…. The United States can’t tolerate migrants who rush the border or assault officers with rocks.” The editorial added, Mexican immigration officials said that far from helping Central American migrants, such acts of lawlessness “undermine the legal migration framework…”
Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times dedicated some of its editorial space to the border crisis not for an editorial but for a report of what is going on at the border, an admission, I believe, of the difficulty of squaring the emotions of the human condition and the legal issues.
The human issues involved cannot be ignored, but neither can the legal and policy issues that surround the situation.
Speed in dealing with the amnesty requests is the answer. Resources should be dedicated to expedite the process but also the law must be followed. Allow those who truly deserve amnesty into the country but don’t open the door to all who seek entry by extralegal means.