Let Them In

They’re here. We don’t hear much about them now that the mid-term elections are over, but the first waves of the famous migrant caravan have reached Tijuana, in plain sight of California across the fence. Hundreds have arrived in the last few days, already crowding shelters and facilities in this migrant depot, where several thousands wait their turn to seek asylum in the United States.

So what should we do with the new arrivals?

Let them in. Interview them first, if only to reinforce what we already know: that they are refugees from violence, poverty, hunger, crop failure, and a collapse of civil order all through the northern triangle of Central America. Check their identification, weed out the known criminals, verify where possible—and let them in.

Why? Because it is the right thing to do. Because these poor, bedraggled, obviously needy people are the huddled masses we inscribe on our Statue of Liberty. Because receiving the poor and offering them a new life is one of our nation’s most precious core values. Because they will reward us with their gratitude, their loyalty, and their labor. That’s what immigrants have always done. That’s what has made us a great country.

Why these, why now? Because they come from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, countries where the United States has flexed its muscles for more than a century. Our government has overthrown theirs, has sent covert agents and outfitted counter-insurgents when these peoples tried to better their lot through social revolutions.  And it goes on. The last government we helped overthrow was in Honduras, just nine years ago.

These people now face daily violence and exploitation of every sort at home. The gangs that carry out this violence frequently originated in Los Angeles, and were deported back to countries they hardly knew. Their civil governments are too often agents themselves of violence and corruption. We exported this problem, and we owe its victims some remediation.

They are victims as well of climate change. Irregular rainfall, too much or too little, has ruined harvests in much of the region for most of the last decade. These people are not the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions—we are. The wealthy nations of the world, led by the United States, have inflicted this agricultural crisis on these vulnerable agrarian societies. We owe them remediation.

But none of these arguments, valid as they may be, really cut to the heart of the question. Why should we offer these people asylum in our country? Because we can. We are rich. We have abundant means to offer them shelter, food, English classes, training, a job. We are a wealthy nation, more than 300 million strong. We will not be impoverished or overrun by a few thousand hungry campesinos. On the contrary, as our long history of immigration tells us, we will be enriched.

Enriched financially, yes, but even more enriched spiritually. Our religions teach us to welcome the stranger, to show compassion to the needy. If you have two coats, give one to your neighbor who has none. Treat others as you would wish to be treated. Love your neighbor. These are the values that make us great, that heal the soul. This is our chance to show that we are still a good and decent people.

As this desperate century unfolds there will be harder tests. Climate migrants are a recent fact, but millions more are on the way. Will we, the world’s number one emitter of greenhouse gases, simply tell those migrants to go somewhere else to starve or drown? Is that our spiritual destiny? Will it be worth surviving, as a nation and a species, if that is who we are?

Now it’s time. The caravan is here, waiting at the gates. Our world is broken, and we Americans have helped to break it. We need to help repair it. We need to share what we have, give what we can. We need to be better than we are, better than our president thinks we are. We need to embrace these migrants so they can help us discover our better selves. We need them. We need to let them in.