Immigration Crisis

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

Add to this that the drug appetite in our country has fueled the violence from which they are fleeing. We might do better stopping drugs than stopping children. After all, they are fleeing to us from what we have brought into their countries.

[Lou]

Great posts, Keith and Dave. This is an issue at which I part company with many of my more politically conservative friends. Having traveled a bit in Central America (6 trips to Guatemala, 2 to Honduras, once in Costa Rica), I've seen first-hand the grinding poverty and daily violence that people of all ages are trying to escape as they flee northward to the U.S. I've handed out food to people who live and scavenge rotting food in the city garbage dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I've seen the women who live in that garbage dump who prostitute themselves to any takers for the equivalent of 15 cents, which is the amount they'd receive from collecting and selling plastic bottles for one day. Honduras has the highest per capita murder rate in the world; who wouldn't want to escape that?

Certainly the U.S. cannot be blamed for everything bad in Central America, but we need to be willing to acknowledge and accept the blame for our part in the mess. For a deeper understanding of how U.S. foreign policy has initiated and/or perpetuated some of the chaos in Central America, I recommend the book "Bitter Fruit" by Schlesinger, which gives extensive history of the U.S.-backed coup in Guatemala during the Eisenhower administration, and traces how that event continues to have repercussions to this day.

For a human face on the immigration crisis, try Sonia Nazario's "Enrique's Journey," which traces the harrowing true journey of a Honduran teenage boy who makes his way northward to the U.S. to try and find his mother who is living in the U.S.

As Christians, we ought to be asking big and spiritually-probing questions--the answers to which frequently cut across the grain of party politics. When I stand before my Lord on the day of judgment, I seriously doubt that He is going to ask me, "What did you do to keep people from coming illegally into your country?" I do suspect, however, that He will ask me, "How did you treat those people once they got to your country?"

[Sandy]

I've been in Honduras and Guatemala, and in fact, spent a week in San Pedro Sula, Honduras about 15 years ago. The poverty was shocking. Since then, the gang violence has escalated out of control. I'm not sure whether that's due to US foreign policy, or just the decline of a culture over-run by corruption and poverty, but the fact that a number of American corporations extract significant wealth out of Honduras, and profit from the cheap labor which results from the poverty and deprivation, probably contributes to its continuing. Kids don't get an education because they work, which keeps the cycle going.

I find the protests, mostly by political and religious conservatives, to be quite hypocritical. I consider it a foundational American principle, one of those formational philosophies that are attributed to the strong Christian influence in the founding of this country, that is expressed in the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free..." For those who are lip flapping about "getting our country back", filing a lawsuit against the President focused on his immigration policy that reflects this foundational principle is idiocy. The "legal" pathway to entry into this country is a catacomb of onerous regulations and rules, designed to filter out the "tired and poor" and makes it virtually impossible for Central Americans and Mexicans to enter the country legally. Desperate people do desperate things, and the lack of humanity that is being exhibited now against the children of people desperate for freedom and a real life is appalling, as is the ignorance of the protestors of this country's history, and its principles. Prosperous Americans are doing this because they love money and want to make sure that no one else competes for their share of it. I thought the love of money was the root of all evil, and greed was a sin. That looks like denial of Biblical truth to me.

I am glad to see that there are some Christians who recognize this for what it is, and have stepped up to provide the food, clothing, housing, and other assistance that is necessary to care for the kids and refugees while their fate is in the hands of horses' rear ends like John Boehner.

[Dave Roberts]

Marv Knox made the most sense in his editorial. May God help us to live it out.

[Sandy]

I'm glad to see that he tactfully, subtly, but firmly called out the preacher who "should have known better" than to fret about the sanctity of our borders over our concern for children.

Watching Sunday morning news programs, it is sickening to see American politicians, most of them tea partiers and conservatives, attempting to turn a political advantage out of grave situations that involve human suffering. It is inconceivable to me that a Baptist pastor, who claims belief in and knowledge of the BIble, would take such a position.

[Haruo]

[Dave Roberts]

[ET]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]