Immigration

Immigration Raid in Shelton Apartments and nearby mobile home park at six in the morning last Thursday. Coincidentally, (??) the raid followed a visit by the Washington State Human Rights Commission where a Latino man spoke of the abuse of the manager at some local apartments (getting drunk, entering tenants homes, throwing their things around the house and actually beating tenants up) Most of the tenants worked in harvesting salal (sometimes better known as brush) and the harvesting season came to an end a couple of weeks ago. Although ICE officials claim there was no connection, it's hard to be sure. At least 17 people were taken from their families and detained.

Today I read an editorial saying that the answer to our immigration problems is to make immigrants serve in the military for 4 years and learn English before allowing them to have legal status. According to the writer, "This would be only for those who cannot legally immigrate here." I cannot even begin to express how much this argument and this mentality disappoints me. Making people desperate for an opportunity at a better life in this country risk their lives and die in the unjust wars this country fights? That sounds like another chance for sheer exploitation in the name of "national interests."

I was telling my mom last night, "I just wish people could realize how important immigrants are to this country." She said, "Or at least how human- that would be a start." Exactly. I fall into all the ridiculous arguments for justifying immigration in this country as much as our politicians do or anyone else. Once again we are trying to validate and rank the value of human life. "Since immigrants take jobs no one else wants, they should be able to come here. Since immigrants work longer hours for less pay, they should be able to come here. Since immigrants contribute to the economy, they should be able to come here." Nevermind that immigrants are PEOPLE and based on only that fact and our faith that God will provide through our choice to SHARE the abundance we were FORTUNATE enough to be born into in this country, immigrants should be allowed to come here. People do not deserve opportunities or LIFE more just because they are more productive. This is the faulty logic of our world and our society. What did we do to be born in the United States? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! Maybe our parents immigrated here or our grandparents and maybe they suffered terribly because of their "newcomer" status or maybe they didn't. Maybe our families have had the fortune to be here nearly since the country was founded. Ok, but to say that our wealth in this country has been created independently of everyone else in the world and therefore we are entitled to it and anyone born outside our borders has to "earn" access or even to say that we as individuals living in 2007 did much of anything to have the opportunities that are available to those residing legally in this country is completely unfounded. Immigrants did nothing more or less to be born into a corrupt, poverty ridden situation than I did to be born into a hardworking and ultimately well-off middle class family in the United States. It just happened. Now, it's about what I do with it. I can feel threatened that immigrants will come and take my job or pull down wages or use all my taxes on their medical bills or I can look and say, "How blessed I am to have these opportunities- what can I do to share those with other people? How can I help others to get as much education as I've had so they can contribute to the field that I've studied or others have studied? How can I share what I've learned and learn from them so all our lives can be enhanced?" When will we start to see people as assets rather than threats to our own security and well-being?

Yes, there are people who make bad choices- always have been and always will be and regardless of immigration laws, they will reside in our country and in countries all around the world ALWAYS. They need to see love more than anyone. As for the majority, we all want to make what we can of our lives. We want to provide for our families, feel proud of our work, spend time with loved ones. I'm sick of political games and compromises that take out the heart of the human experience. Who cares if it is amnesty? What does one immigrant's opportunity take away from YOU? You have had opportunities and you continue to have opportunities. Their only "crime" is seeking a better life. Now, if they rob or hurt someone once they are inside the country, they should go through the court system and serve their sentence just like everyone else. But risking your life just for an OPPORTUNITY- a CHANCE at a better life- how is that a crime? How is that something that deserves a sentence? That is just human- it is what any of us would do if our families were hungry and we were barely making it day to day. Having to leave your family and country and all that you love that is familiar to you seems like plenty serious a sentence to me either way, regardless of whether we see it as a crime or not.

I know I can never convince our politicians on this- I will never be able to help them see the importance of valuing all human life, regardless of where people are born, what they look like or what language they speak. I probably can't even convince most Americans. But this really is the heart of the issue. It's about people. It's about Juan Carlos and me being able to safely visit his family in Nayarit and safely return because we are two people who love each other and who want the opportunity to live in the United States (near my family and his brothers) and yet maintain the connection to his homeland. How does us having that ability, which would make a world of difference for us, really threaten anyone else?

It doesn't. Yet, people are so obsessed with laws and rules and our system of punishment to see that sometimes the rules don't make sense and sometimes the system is flawed. They forget the days when there were laws that people with black colored skin could not enter a restroom labeled "white only." They forget the days when detainment, persecution and mass murdering of Jews in the Holocaust was essentially the "rule." How many times do we have to go blind and stop seeing PEOPLE as PEOPLE for us to finally understand there are rules above the law. There are things more important than the SYSTEM and places more desirable to be than the UNITED STATES.

You see, God created the world, not countries. God created people in all their wonderful diversity, but he didn't create a color library to distinguish them from one another. God said LOVE ONE ANOTHER, not "make sure you have national security and maintain your economic advantage at all times." LOVE DOES NOT ENVY (they will take our jobs) IT IS NOT POMPOUS (they have to learn English because that is our language), IT DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN INTERESTS ( we need national security for our country, they will spend my tax dollars) Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away... So faith, hope and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13: 4-10

I await the day when LOVE really IS the law we all abide by- when we care more about what is RIGHT than what is LEGAL, when we understand all human life as deserving of food, water, shelter, clothing, love, health care, due process, freedom, a voice and economic opportunity.

There was another community meeting on legal rights in Shelton. Three out of an expected 75 people showed up. Everyone is scared. Not just the immigrants, but those that called ICE in, those that call our representatives with hateful messages about immigrants every day, those that "hunt" immigrants in the Arizona deserts. My question is "what are we scared of?"

I don't believe that hate is the opposite of love- I believe that FEAR is the opposite of love and it is really fear that breeds hate. It is fear that stops us from doing what we should- fear that if we give too much, we'll lose our own security. Fear that if we let too many in, there won't be enough for us anymore. Fear that if we love too deeply or too naively, we will be the ones that get hurt in the end. So we put up our walls and our fences and shut off our hearts and refuse to live fully, because we are just too scared. Read the warm fuzzy story. Read the Bible. Over and over again- Do not be afraid. Warm fuzzies don't run out. Generosity will not leave us destitute and love never fails. What is it about fear that we cling to?

My new prayer is that God take away my fear so I can love more fully. Fear touches me too. Fear that I could go to jail for protecting undocumented immigrants, fear that people I know will reject the work I do, fear that I won't be understood or appreciated, fear that those I want to help or love will betray me by making decisions I don't agree with, but I can't let those fears stop me from doing what I know is right. Throughout human history, great people have gone to jail for doing the right thing. Regardless of what happens, or what I have to suffer, I know God won't leave me. I know that my life will always be better for having risked my own safety and well- being on a chance to love. May God bless the people of this country, the immigrants who come to make their lives here and people living in fear all around the world. That the real threats to their lives and well-being may dissolve and that the perceived threats be recognized and conquered through making a decision to love instead.