Fix Immigration Now

 Republicans hyperventilate over the number of immigrants requesting asylum their solution are rejection, building Trump’s wall, or Gov. Abbott’s barbed wire in the Rio Grande. Trump and his sycophants demonize people who are poor and have darker skin than themselves. You can be sure they’re hypocrites because those same Republicans are falling all over themselves to protect a German family who came here a decade ago and over-stayed their 90 day visa. The Romeike family claims they suffered religious persecution and their evidence is that Germany doesn’t allow home-schooling so every child must attend a public or approved private school. The Romeike’s are evangelical Christians and claim that the public school system might have an impact on the children’s family values.

Citizens of Germany, New Zealand, Hungary, Iceland, and Estonia to name just a few, all have a straightforward and legal entry path into the United States but that program specifically excludes majority non-white nations such as Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines. The Romeike’s chose not to apply for legal immigration they broke the law and flaunt it.

Those same Republicans defending the Romeike’s make so much noise about the purported open borders that the media in many Central and South American countries repeat it creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that our border with Mexico is swamped with immigrants. Republicans in Congress are unwilling to add funding to address the need for more immigration judges and staff. 

A U.S. State Department travel advisory reads: “Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor healthcare infrastructure.” Yet this past August, 60 refugees fleeing for their lives were forced back to Haiti. I wonder if they'd still be here if they were white and fleeing the horrors of a public school system they didn’t like.

 I’ve been unimpressed with Democrats’ discussion of immigration as well because they fail to discuss or do anything about the reasons that those seeking asylum want to come here so desperately that they’ll give up their homes and family ties then make a dangerous 1500 to 3000 mile journey just to request asylum here. Unlike the Romeike’s the folks streaming to our border with Mexico are actually trying to escape violence in the form of cartels and trans-national gangs.

This country bares some responsibility for the instability of so many Central and South American countries since we have interfered with their governments including sponsoring the overthrow of left wing governments in at least a dozen of them. Some such as Cuba and Nicaragua then revolted and were taken over by outright communists and are now dictatorships much like the old Soviet Union. We also provide the profits of their narcotics gangs with our failed “war on drugs” which just leads to corruption in government and violence in the community.

We should be supporting the people in their home countries with funding for education and health care. We should encourage exports and manufacturing through our trade policies. We must take the profits out of drug production and smuggling by decriminalizing most drugs so that funding for gangs dries up and they can no longer corrupt local governments.

There are millions of undocumented immigrants already here, quite a few came as young children and have grown up, gotten jobs, married and had children of their own yet we still deport them even though they often don’t speak the language of their country of origin and have no ties to it. This nation needs to provide a quick path to citizenship for all those currently here and create a system that is fair to all immigrants. 

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 21, 2024