I have had my fill with the argumentation being used in recent years by both the Republican right and the Democrat left when the topic of immigration comes-up.
Anymore, the Right asserts that if you’re not lining-up with Trump on the immigration debate you must be for open borders.
Likewise, the Left endlessly insinuates that if you’re not for open borders you’re automatically all-in with Trump on the immigration issue.
That is a false dichotomy: pure and simple. The solution lies in the middle between those two perspectives.
Just as with so many other political and public policy discussions, this is not a black-and-white issue where conditions have to be to one extreme or the other.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) as well as Customs & Border Protection (CBP) are able to operate under legislation that authorizes them to engage in heavy-handed border enforcement operations as far as 100 miles from any physical U.S. border.
Reports from communities in the Rio Grande valley detail how agents from both Department of Justice entities have been demonstrating complete disregard for Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure and even setting-up operations on private property without concern for consent from property owners – a mind-boggling violation of the Third Amendment.
In my youth, when I was learning about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, if you would have told me in the 21st century our government would begin skirting the Third Amendment, I would have laughed in your face…
…This is no laughing matter.
Perhaps the most important nugget of truth residents in the northern span of Ohio need to bear in mind: the precedents set at our southern border can all-too-easily be applied to our northern border – and impact almost one-third of Ohio.
It bears noting that I do not favor open borders. One of the legitimate functions of government (and, it is a short list) is to establish and maintain secure borders. As a nation, we have every right to know who seeks entry into the United States (as well as observe who seeks to exit in order to stop fugitives fleeing justice). That is not unreasonable.
At the same time, “Building the Wall” also will not solve anything. To the tune of well over $25 billion, all that will do is motivate those who profit off the border crossing black market to innovate new ways to defeat it. Our government helped spawn that black market situation with this notion of overzealous border enforcement.
To further skew any conversation, the American Right will even go so far as to liken today’s state of immigration to an “invasion.” Rejecting this rhetoric on its face is easy. The use of such a term is nothing more than conservatives taking a page out of the Progressive Left’s playbook: inject as many fear-oriented/emotionally-charged terms into the discussion as deemed necessary.
Ultimately, what we have going at present is absurdly restrictive and diametrically opposed to historical American values. Even before President Donald Trump embraced “zero tolerance” at our southern border, that observation held true.
Moreover, it was not even President Trump who established the Zero Tolerance policy being carried-out by I.C.E. – it has been only in the last year this policy finally began grabbing headlines in the manner it has.
The uncomfortable truth for the vast majority of Trump’s opposition is that during President Barack Obama’s administration I.C.E. was separating children from their parents at the border at double the pace of his successor. However, no one in Washington, D.C., or America’s leading news media outlets seemed concerned enough about it to make any noise during that eight-year span. At the end of the day, the Democratic Party has absolutely no moral high ground on this issue.
To reiterate, the tighter the restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on legally entering this country, the greater the black market environment it has created. Loosen the criteria and you alleviate the incentive to cross “illegally.”
Just as important, the majority of those who have been slipping across the southern U.S. border for years should be acknowledged for what they are: refugees from the War on Drugs. Since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted in 1970, our federal government hasn’t just created a mess here in our own country, it has expended a great deal of energy pushing the remainder of the Western Hemisphere to follow-suit.
That has been a primary driver in causing the conditions in Mexico and across Central America that have been prompting citizens in those countries to flee northward.
We shaped this mess as a country. To tell victims of our failed policies, “Sorry for your luck,” is crap.
I would like to offer one more additional point for consideration.
You don’t have to favor open borders to recognize that the “zero tolerance” approach to breaking-apart every single family crossing the border is draconian and in complete contravention to everything for which America once stood.
Ponder this: beginning in 1993, after President Bill Clinton took office, the popular mantra the Republican right began to advance in earnest was “the family is under attack”…
…Now, fast-forward 25 years and that same political camp demands we all accept the idea maintaining a secure border necessitates I.C.E. and CBP attacking families as a deterrent to illegal border crossings.
Brilliant. Positively brilliant.