In recent days, immigration has taken center stage once again in our national political discussion. Will we create a “Deportation Force” to expel even more undocumented migrants than the record number sent south in the last 8 years? Will we attempt to build an impenetrable wall on our southern border? And will Mexico be coerced into paying for that sad symbol of America First?
Walls have an unblemished record of failure. The Great Wall of China failed to protect the Chinese Empire from the “barbarians.” Hadrian’s wall in Britain did not insure Roman imperial rule. The Berlin wall did not preserve communism. Walls have never kept the “other” at bay for long.
The fundamental problem with that wall on our southern border is that it encourages us to respond first out of fear. Despite the political rhetoric, undocumented residents commit fewer crimes than documented citizens. They have to be more careful. Arrest has far greater dangers for them.
Though some migrants arrive fleeing violence or oppression in their countries of origin, most migrants come to work and to make a better life for themselves and their families.
As we approach this Labor Day holiday, I believe we should be remembering the US businesses and farms that are happy to employ undocumented workers. I believe we should be remembering the exploitation of those workers, the conditions under which they labor and the wage theft they endure.
I believe we should be remembering factories that have been set up just across the border where US corporations now take advantage of lower wages to produce so many of the goods we consume. Outsourcing has made money for more than one US billionaire.
I believe we should be remembering the changes in the role of labor as automation and robotics shrink the need for human hands. But remembering also the need to modernize our infrastructure here at home, which will require many hands to complete, if the will to undertake it can be found.
I believe we should be remembering the need for a living wage as a value of greater human importance than a corporation surpassing its quarterly earnings estimate.
On this Labor Day holiday, I remember the role of the religious community, articulated by Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed:
“The central task of the religious community is to unveil the bonds that unite each to all.”
The religious community calls us always to see more clearly our interconnectedness, how our lives rely on one another.
As the great Catholic worker’s advocate, Dorothy Day, wrote:
“We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”
The interconnected web does not end at some wall on our border.
Blessings,
Bill