The situation at the Southern border is a problem, to be sure. But the word crisis more aptly applies to the challenges faced by the thousands of people now trying to make it into the United States. It is they who are in crisis. The vast majority have experienced the most difficult circumstances imaginable, have traveled here on harrowing journeys, and are now trying desperately to make to a place where they can simply live decent lives.
It will take time to reckon with this situation, in large part because of Congress’s ineptitude and inaction over the last two decades. Greater resources must be put in the service of creating legal, safe entry for the influx of immigrants now seeking asylum. But America must also recognize how our policies in Latin America over several decades - from sanctions to other destabilizing actions - have contributed to the economic and social hardships of millions of people throughout Latin America.
This is a time of reckoning in America, in which every problem that confronts us now is challenging us to look in the mirror. Where has our country, with both domestic and international policies, created or at the very least helped to create the very conditions we now decry?
As far as refugees are concerned, we are doing it again now. With our failure to ramp down fossil fuel extraction, we’re exacerbating a situation that could lead to a time when hundreds of millions climate refugees will be roaming the world in search of a place to live. It might well be true that we ain't seen nothing yet.
This is not a time to close our hearts; it's time to open them. "You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." - Leviticus 19:34.
Just sayin'.
May 12, 2023 · 4:15 AM UTC
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