I don’t know for sure why I’m for an open immigration policy. Maybe it was the song I was taught as a youth.
Send me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
I still hear it. Not just in my mind but in my heart.
Maybe it’s because I don’t believe the immigrants are taking our jobs. When was the last time you or a person you knew lost a job to an immigrant, legal or illegal?
And what about the second language, the social security, the lost taxes? Ask yourself. Would open immigration solve this problem as well as a closed door policy? Of course it would.
Open immigration solves all those problems. Employers would be forced to pay them minimum wage and pay taxes. They'd be competing on a level playing field.. or as level as it gets if you don't speak the language.
Maybe it was all the multi-generation immigrant families I knew. The friends in my NJ neighborhood. My cousins. The ones whose grandparents only spoke Italian or Polish or Greek or Spanish. My friends, my cousins, the grandkids of those immigrants, speak only English. They are as American as you and I.
I saw the same thing with the children of the illegal immigrant families I knew in Albuquerque and I knew plenty of them. Legal or illegal that’s what happens.
Maybe it’s because we’re a land of immigrants. Maybe it was spending time with the Native Americans, the First Nations people. Even if your ancestors like mine came over in the 1600’s the Native American still feel like we’re illegal occupiers of their country. They’d love to throw us out. I was taught that what goes around comes around and I believe it. I'm not about kicking people out. Would we even fit in Europe any more?
Maybe it’s God and his word in the scriptures. The earth is full, there is enough and to spare. It is not meet that one man should have above another wherefore the world lieth in sin.
Or maybe it was my parents who taught me by example that the more you share the more you have. It’s true. I didn’t need to read “The Secret” to learn that abundance and generosity go hand in hand. It’s in my bones.
When I read those articles about how much illegal immigration costs us I think greed, selfishness and fear rather than abundance, generosity and love and I immediately reject it.
What are we afraid of? Instead of 7 pairs of shoes in my closet there will only be 3? There will only be 60 women’s tops my size at the thrift store next time I go shopping instead of 160? Instead of a 10 new toys to stuff in that child’s closet for Christmas there will only be 1? We’re a land of incredible wealth – mostly because the hard working, creative, courageous among us create it. And immigrants are a big part of it.
But most of all, maybe it was the Holocaust. As a child I wondered why they didn't leave Germany? As a teenager I learned many wanted to but couldn’t because so many countries had closed door policies. It wasn’t just Hitler who caused the Holocaust. We did. People still alive today. Our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. We fenced those people in! They couldn’t leave because so many nations, including us – US - had closed door policies. The same policy so many fearful, greedy people want to implement today.
My God. Did Ann Frank really die because some parent was afraid he couldn’t give Johnny a new bike for Christmas? I think so. I know so. I swore it would never happen on my watch. I decided then and there that whoever wanted to come was welcome to come. No limit.
Please don’t send me those anti-immigration quotes from back in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. All I can think of when you do is the Holocaust.
Come on, America. We’re better than this. Forget the fence. Lift that lamp. There’s plenty for all.
