On immigration

Recently, immigration has dominated the news headlines, and I suspect it will be a divisive issue throughout this presidential season. TV screens and newspapers flash repeated images of thousands of migrants crossing rivers, walking along tall steel walls and barbed-wired fences at our Southern border - seemingly more to evoke fear of chaos among their viewers and readers than to offer concrete solutions. Voices supporting immigrants for humanitarian reasons and for their potential societal contributions are being drowned by sound bites that demonize them as criminals and blood poisons. The reality is that immigrants will melt into all the social layers and assimilate, for better or for worse, the values and predicaments that are already present in our society. Some barely surviving on welfare, many working hard at low paying jobs, and some eventually attending elite universities and climbing corporate ladders.

President JFK, Jr. reminded us that “we are a country of immigrants”, a mosaic quilt that binds us together in beautiful colors and with strong stitches. It has been so since the birth of our nation, and will continue to be so. Global migration is as old as our human species. 

 I am not suggesting that we should have open borders to illegal immigration. Yes, we need a more orderly system than what we have now. But we should not let the discussion be driven by politicians who appeal to our tribal instincts, dividing us by skin colors and calling cultural diversity a threat to our national security.

                                                                    (Published in the Gazette Times, Corvallis, March 9, 2024)