My view: Immigration

 I believe that the Declaration of Independence is a great document which contains many good ideas about what society should look like, and examples of what should be avoided. The passage I wish to focus on for this particular post is found in the second paragraph.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Now, I admit the text does say "men", and it is clear from the time that the prevailing thought was that only men should be allowed to do things (such as vote and own property). But I believe the statement with the clarification that "men" should be changed to "people" to make the point that it should cover all humans, not just male ones and not just adults. 

With that caveat made, I agree with the sentiment. I believe that all people should be treated equally. I do not believe that people should be treated differently based on which country they were born in. I do not believe that being born within a certain geographical region entitles someone to rights that anyone born outside that region should not have. To me, that is a blatant contradiction of the statement in the Declaration. 

How does this relate with immigration? I believe that much is obvious. Any  right which is afforded to people born within the United States should be universally afforded to all people regardless of place of birth. I reject the notion of citizen and non-citizen. I reject the assertion that we should treat people differently because of the circumstances of their birth. I believe in equality. I believe in treating people equally, whether they were born here or in any other country. I do believe in treating people differently based on the actions they take in their lives (particularly as adults), but no one decided where they would be born--that decision was made for them. Being born in a different country is no crime and should not be treated as one.

I am aware that our country, like most, has laws regulating immigration. I will not go so far as to say I see no logic in having regulations on immigration, only that I do not believe the laws we currently have are logical nor are they beneficial to the country. From the arguments I have participated in, it seems to be a common theme for conservatives to call undocumented immigrants criminals for breaking immigration law and being here against those regulations. To that I will assert that in our legal code we have definitions for what a criminal offense is and what a civil offense is. We have criminal law and civil law. Immigration law is civil law, and therefore violation of it does not make one a criminal--it is not a criminal offense. It is a civil offense. To assert that anyone who breaks any law is a criminal is to assert that basically everyone who drives is a criminal, since it is illegal to drive above the posted speed limit and nearly everyone on the highway does so regardless of the law. Speeding is a civil offense and is treated that way. Getting a speeding ticket does not mark your criminal record. Civil offenses are recorded separately. So to anyone who wishes to call undocumented immigrants criminals, I will respond with the assertion that by that reasoning everyone who speeds is a criminal, and this effectively renders the appellation meaningless.

I have a sister-in-law who was born in a different country. She has been married to my brother for nearly three decades now and as I understand it she only recently obtained citizenship status with the US. In my opinion, this is (anecdotal) evidence which indicates that our immigration law makes it far too difficult for people to "come here legally", as conservatives are wont to word it. I believe that any rational immigration law will streamline and simplify the process so it can be done within a matter of months rather than a matter of years or decades. I also believe there should be basically zero friction for both temporary and permanent legal residence status. I see no valid reason to try to keep people out of our country. I see no reason to lock our doors, so to speak, and not allow new people in when we have no restrictions whatsoever on childbirth within the country (which is simply a different way for people to enter the country).

To kick people out, to assert that their residence here within our borders, is to be unallowed is precisely to assert that not all people are created equally. It is to assert that somehow people born in one place are better or more deserving than people born in a different place.

I see people who assert that the US is the best country on the planet and also assert that immigrants should "go back to where they came from". The only logical conclusion I can draw from someone simultaneously believing both these statements is that they are selfish and wish to keep what they value for themselves rather than share it, since the alternative is that they simply believe two contradictory statements (which is not logical). From my perspective, if I have something wonderful I want to share it with other people so they might also enjoy it. If I see a movie or TV show that I like, I want to tell other people about it and let them know so they can enjoy it as well. If they've already seen it, I like to talk with them about it and gather their thoughts as I share my own. If I eat at a restaurant with tasty food, I tell other people in the area about it so they might also experience the good food. Most people do things of this nature. So it baffles me when I see someone doing precisely the opposite--effectively hoarding the thing they believe to be good for themselves and not wanting other people to experience the good they see in it. If you believe the USA is the best country, why wouldn't you want to allow people to come here and share in the greatness?

Trump has regularly attacked immigrants all throughout his career as a politician, ever since he first announced his candidacy back in 2015. His argument has always been "they should come here legally". That sentiment is determined to be false as he is now revoking the legal status of nearly a quarter of a million Ukrainian refugees. They were granted temporary legal residency upon fleeing here from their war-torn country. So clearly his vendetta is not against people coming here illegally, it is against people coming here. He is on a crusade to demonize anyone who was not born in this country. It is truly frightening to see. It is a common tactic used by authoritarian leaders to rally the people to his cause--to scapegoat a minority group (or several minority groups) and to dehumanize them. If someone can convince people to think of "others" as not human, but evil monsters, then he can convince them to commit great atrocities in the name of his cause. We have seen this multiple countries throughout history. When a group of people is demonized and treated as less than human, the result has never been a positive outcome. This is why I believe it is important to take the words of the Declaration to heart--to actually treat all people as equal, instead of treating some people as better than others.

I have seen people point to crimes committed by undocumented immigrants as a reason to deport them. My response is simply that we have criminals who were born here. Criminals can be from any background. It is no reason for us to keep an entire group of people out of our country, or to deport them. If we were to deport all members of an ethic group due to some of those members committing crimes while here, we would be left with no people at all. Also, I present statistics about crime. Undocumented immigrants commit far fewer crimes (in sheer numbers as well as per capita) than both documented immigrants and natural-born citizens. We cannot logically use crime as a reason to keep people out of the country.

One more reason why I do not accept the assertion that this is "our" country and we have to keep it for ourselves rather than sharing it with other people is simply that it isn't our country. We stole it from people who were already living here when European settlers arrived. The colonists immigrated here illegally and proceeded to slaughter the residents who were here at the time. There were an estimated 10 million people living here when Europeans arrived. By 1900, that population was below 300,000. It was a slaughter of millions of people. Perhaps the fear that people have towards immigrants is nothing more than projection--the fear that people coming here now would do what we did centuries ago when we immigrated here. 

In summary, it is my belief that people should be allowed to live together in harmony irrespective of differences such as place of birth, ethnicity, or even religion. We should welcome immigrants to our shores. We should especially welcome those who are fleeing less desirable environments. If someone wants to live here, I see no logical reason to deny them that right. Our immigration law is far too restrictive, far too unforgiving and cruel. It needs to be more lenient, more accepting. We should treat all people equally. People should be granted the rights asserted in the Declaration--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.