What Open Border?

By Suellyn Shupe

10/24/2021

It seems everyone has an opinion about Immigration to the U.S.  I have gotten sick and tired of hearing on newscasts and in newspapers about "Biden's open border policy".   Yes, more people are approaching the border hoping to get in, even though both the President and V. P. have repeatedly and publicly asked them not to.  This does not mean they are simply crossing and running free in the U.S.  

There is a huge presence of immigration authority at the border to intercept those who cross whether they cross with documents or as asylum seekers…. who seek documents.  The greatest percentage of people seeking to enter our country turn themselves over to ICE and ask to connect with a relative or contact here who will harbor them until they can receive official permission to stay and work and raise their families.  After which they are treated abominably and go through arduous procedures and paperwork, over months or years, to be allowed to stay.  Or they are sent back to where they came from.

Currently, President Biden has left Rule 42 in place (from the Trump administration) which allows the border patrol to refuse entry to people based on the public health emergency created by the pandemic.  This rule is questioned by United Nations leadership and others as being illegal, and displeases many who believe it is inhumane.  But, those who want to assign a raging border crisis to Biden do not seem to notice it is being used.  

The many people who believe that anyone who sets foot inside our borders without legal documentation is a criminal are mistaken.  I grocery shop and walk in our local park alongside Hispanic families in my East Price Hill neighborhood.  The children attend local schools, often learning English more quickly than their parents do and helping to translate for them.  Last week, I and a Spanish speaking friend helped a dad figure out how to reserve a shelter in the park for his son’s birthday party.  These are sincere people who just want to have a life… which they are increasingly unable to do because of conditions in their own country of origin.

Non-profit organizations and churches in the neighborhood have programs to assist immigrants in navigating our complicated medical, educational and legal systems so they can do things right and survive until they can receive their green cards and work legally.  Meanwhile, there are plenty of businesses and landlords willing to take advantage of their precarious positions for cheap labor and outrageous cost for a roof over their heads.   If anyone complaining about ‘them’ taking your job would like one of the jobs they do, I’d like to see how long you would last.  

By contrast the criminals and drug runners coming in have created sophisticated systems to avoid detection by ICE and DHS, and they frequently use legal ports to do it.  I’m not sure whether they are still tunneling under the wall, or running small boats up on isolated beaches as we used to read about; but in any case, these criminal enterprises have connections with American criminals already here to help them get their contraband in.  Check out the regular reports in the Enquirer about DHS and DEA intercepting drug shipments that make it to CVG and/or other distribution points inside the country.  The drugs are not being toted over the border in backpacks by individual criminals.

The Biden administration is struggling to rebuild a system of border control that was turned into a police and prison camp system by the Trump administration.  Finding a way back to a humane, compassionate, yet fair system of treating people, and determining who can enter our country to seek haven from criminal violence, and political and climate upheaval is not an easy task.  It will take time to rebuild an adequately staffed and  knowledgeable immigration legal staff.   The physical and medical facilities needed to handle this emergency at the border must be reclaimed from the private contractors who used government money to turn them into jails.  And meanwhile nearly everyone is going to be dissatisfied about something.

In addition to addressing the border, Vice President Harris is charged with responsibility to work with governments in the source countries.  Instead of threatening and ‘bribing’ other governments by making aide money dependent on them policing their own borders as was done by the previous administration; Harris is attempting to see what can be done to improve options for people to actually make a decent, threat-free home in their home country.  

So what does all this have to do with BND members so far from the border?  

Well, we may not live near the southern border, but we live in and near the neighborhoods where many of the immigrant people have landed over generations, and perhaps yesterday.  They arrive here courtesy of family members or friends from their native countries who paved the way, and often with help from non-profit organizations and agencies.  

If we believe the statements in our social contract, we must recognize that some of them apply whether or not a person is a citizen of this country.

I.        That all people are born into equality.  Here I am reading this to mean every individual is entitled to personal dignity and respect from others; not that they are automatically entitled to the legal rights of a citizen.

II.        That access to affordable health care, education, housing, food & economic opportunity are human rights… 

VI.        That clean air, clean water, & a sustaining, healthy environment are basic needs for humans & all other species on our shared planet…

In this, the richest country in the world, access to the basic needs and affordable services we believe are human rights (named above) are now slipping away from a larger and larger portion of our own population.  But that is nothing compared to the challenges to those who live in the developing nations.  Global capitalism is co-opting and contaminating or depleting the air, water and environments in many countries.  In the process government officials may be bribed and corrupted, thereby depriving the citizens of health care, education, housing, food and economic opportunity.  

People are not seeking to immigrate here because the Biden administration is sending the message, “Y’all come.”  They are coming here because they believe they will have a better chance to live without the corruption and violence and pollution and deprivation in their own countries which is accelerated by outside interests in their countries’ remaining natural resources.  We have a big job cut out for us just to hold the line on corruption, violence, pollution, and deprivation for our own citizens, but I firmly believe that our value structure must apply to all who live among us or it counts for nothing.

As climate change and global pandemics accelerate (courtesy of corporate capitalism) world wide migration will increase to wherever opportunities for relief exist.  In my view, it behooves us to hold our government representatives responsible to adhere to the value structure that BND adopted from our founding documents.