The Daily Item
September 15, 2024
Working in a restaurant in the mid-1990s, I met Marcel from El Salvador. Around 1982, his father was murdered by gang members, and his mother paid an extortion to drive a school bus safely. She told Marcel to run away to the U.S. No matter the shift I worked, Marcel was there cooking — a hot, fast-paced, exhausting job.
This country could not have been built, grown, or functioned now without immigrants. They want what most Americans want: safety, freedom, work opportunities, and a better future for their children. With our aging population and low birth rates, we need younger workers well into the future.
President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in November 1986, in part to require employers and employees to attest to and prove legal employment eligibility. That was 38 years ago. The challenges of immigration existed well before 1986. It is a complicated, controversial, and difficult problem, never resolved by a Republican or Democratic president. Migration, by the way, is happening globally.
We likely all agree that: Our borders must be secured and an efficient process for qualified immigrants is established; it is wrong to separate children from their parents and neglect kids who arrive at our borders alone; people who came to the U.S. as children decades ago, who work and pay taxes, and are law-abiding, can stay; a greater number of highly educated and skilled persons should be allowed to emigrate.
We know that Congress must write effective laws that coordinate the efforts of and provide funding to the many government agencies that enforce these laws. The Senate spent months crafting a massive bipartisan border bill endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council (the union representing 18,000 members). It was defeated because Donald Trump told his allies to kill it, as he needed an issue for his reelection campaign.
Trump claims that migrants are lazy and criminal while they are “taking jobs from Blacks and Hispanics.” A border wall, which he could not build in four years, was Trump’s solution, to be “paid for by Mexico.” His current policy is to round up millions of people and deport them.
Donald Trump attacks Vice President Kamala Harris, who was never named a border czar nor given responsibility for border enforcement. She looked into the root causes of migration from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Harris faced criticism during her visit to Guatemala City for telling migrants: “Do not come.” She had some success convincing global companies to invest in Central America and provide employment. And she raised $5 billion from dozens of companies for private and public funding to address the root causes of migration. This effort must be sustained over decades as there is no short-term fix.
What can be done now? VP Harris pledges to revive the thorough and common-sense bipartisan border bill, “the strongest border security legislation in decades that reasserts control of the border, ends catch and release, enhances security, fixes the asylum system, and supports border communities,” and “disrupts the flow of fentanyl,” according to Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. (You can read more at https://www.sinema.senate.gov/borderdeal/).
We can reject hateful statements that describe migrants as animals, deny their humanity, and ignore the violent and hopeless circumstances that they flee at great expense and risk.
We can elect Kamala Harris, who, as president, will continue to work to reduce the flow of illegal migration and pass an effective bipartisan border bill.
The Republican Mayor of Mesa, Arizona, John Giles, recently endorsed Vice President Harris for president. Mr. Giles has to manage the impact of migration and knows the difference between a humane and workable solution versus one that is cruel and simplistically short-sighted, as well as economically disastrous.
Mr. Giles and Kamala Harris understand this complicated problem cannot be solved by simply rounding up and deporting people like Marcel, who are, and have always been, a necessary part of the vibrant American fabric.
Carolyn Coldren
Lewisburg