Before solution, public must examine immigration through lens of values

<p>All Americans can agree that we are in the midst of an immigration crisis. It is impossible for anyone, no matter where a person is on the political spectrum, to ignore the issue. What Americans are wrangling is how best to address the issue and solve the crisis.</p><p>To this point, the sides are divided on the issue of the wall. President Trump says that the wall is necessary; the Democrats counter by saying a wall is expensive, ineffective and proof of Trump’s juvenile need to get his own way.</p><p>Before the issue of immigration can be solved, however, we the people must decide what kind of issue it is. For some, the border issue is primarily an economic issue. They see the influx of immigrants as taking jobs away from Americans or putting a strain on our health care system. Yet, there are others who also define the immigration issue as an economic one but who insist that large segments of our economy, such as farming and food service, can’t function without the use of immigrant labor.</p><p>Others view the immigration crisis as a national identity and national security issue. For them, immigrants are the “other.” The “otherness” that worries these folk is epitomized by the description of those on our border as criminals, drug dealers, or, to use Trump’s term, animals.</p><p>Not all who view the crisis in this way are racists, but racists certainly embrace this view. For them, the problem with the immigrants is that they are non-white and non-English-speaking foreigners. Racists understood Trump’s mantra of “make American great again,” as his way of promising to “make American white again.” For these folk, the issue won’t be solved by a wall alone, but by hunting down and evicting people of color, even the “dreamers” born in this country.</p><p>Other Americans, of which I am one, view the immigration crisis as a crisis of values. How we respond to the waves of immigrants will reveal what we stand for as a nation. On the day of Trump’s inauguration, a major newspaper ran a cartoon of Obama performing his last function of office, that act being to turn off the light in the Statue of Liberty.</p><p>To describe the immigration crisis as a crisis of values is also to say that this is a spiritual issue. America’s soul is being tested by how we respond to those on our border who want their children to have a chance at a life of safety and dignity.</p><p>More specifically, the soul of American Evangelicalism is being tested. Evangelicals and fundamentalists form the base of Trump’s support, and their support for the wall certainly baffles other Christians who can’t understand how Jesus’ command to love the neighbor, the neighbor being anyone in need, is so clearly ignored.</p><p>The answer to this was given 50 years ago by Martin Luther King, who observed that the most segregated hour in American life is 11 a.m. on Sunday morning. The way he saw the American Church at the time—whites worshipping in one building, people of color in a different building—is tragically still true today. If King were alive, I believe he would note that if people aren’t prepared to worship with those of another color, they certainly won’t be prepared to welcome them into this country.</p><p>The immigration issue is a spiritual challenge that pits compassion against fear and hatred. To make the choice before us crystal clear, I suggest we make copies of the Statue of Liberty and position them all along our southern border, especially in those places where the wall has already been constructed. For I challenge any American to explain how these two symbols of our country, the Statue of Liberty and Trump’s wall, can be reconciled.</p><p><em>Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.</em></p>