COMMENTARY: A Nation of Immigrants

Earlier this summer, a hardworking, honest single mother reported for her regular check-in with immigration authorities. At that point, she had been living in Charleston for nearly a decade, diligently following all the necessary legal steps to seek asylum here after escaping a violent and uncertain life back home in Guatemala.

For the last seven years, our congregation, the Unitarian Church in Charleston, befriended her, supported her case, and helped her and her children adjust to life in the American South.

She had no criminal record. She held a steady job and paid her taxes. She was happily raising her young children in the Lowcountry, two of whom are US citizens. According to everyone who knew her, she was a productive and kind member of our community. She had a generous heart and a wide smile, and was always willing to pitch in and help someone in need.

Yet upon arriving to her check-in with an immigration judge back in June, she was immediately arrested and sent to prison in Georgia – hundreds of miles from her home and her family. In that moment, she lost everything. And her children lost their mother. After six weeks in prison, she was deported back to Guatemala – painfully separated from her children and her life in Charleston – and returned to the dangerous, life- threatening conditions she was trying to escape in the first place.

Unfortunately, this woman’s experience is not an isolated incident. It’s happening to hundreds of thousands of families and neighbors across the United States right now. President Trump arrived in the White House this year claiming he would deport immigrants who were violent criminals, illegally in the country. But that’s not what is happening. Instead, we are seeing innocent, law abiding people arrested, imprisoned, and ripped away from their children and communities. Some people are being deported to third-party countries, to prisons in El Salvador and as far away as South Sudan, thousands of miles from their life in the United States and their country of birth.

It’s a sad time in America.

Recall this basic American fact: we are a nation of immigrants. That is indisputable. Whether you are a white nationalist, an anti-racist activist, or just an everyday middle- class American, you are likely the descendant of immigrants- unless you are part of the 1.1% of the population that is Native American.

You might be tempted to compare your family’s immigration history to the story of our friend.

You might say that America has always been rough on, even brutal toward, immigrants and newcomers – and you’d be right. Perhaps it happened to one of your ancestors. But should the mistakes of the past dictate future injustice? If my grandparents were oppressed, does that give me the right to oppress another’s grandchild? We know what is right and wrong, and what is happening today is wrong in every sense.

You might also like to think that your family immigrated to America “the right way.” But so did the woman our church supported. She did everything right. She was following the legal process presented to her just like your ancestors did.

It’s true that things are different now. In 1890, for example, approximately 63 million people called the United States home. Today the country is home to 344 million (a fivefold increase). Many more people would still like to move here – to create a better life through work and education. Can we support every single person who would like to do so? Surely not.

Our laws therefore must adapt to these new realities — but not by criminalizing human beings seeking a better future through honest, hard work.

The immigration system, as every president from Reagan to the present has admitted, is fundamentally broken. What we need is not more deportations, but updated, fair immigration pathways and just laws, including efficient guest worker programs, opportunities for people to prove themselves and their skills, and other laws that reflect our moral values as well as our social and economic needs.

It may not have been illegal to deport our friend, or even place her in prison, but that doesn’t make it right. Our nation has a founding commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Unless that promise is upheld, our politicians must be held accountable for their unacceptable actions. History will remember their moral failures. And sooner rather than later, those leaders who support imprisoning innocent men, women, and children will be voted out of office – returned to civilian life among the rest of us every day Americans who are proud descendants of immigrants.