Immigration and Human Rights

Immigration and Human Rights - Who we are as Americans

Every once in a while, all Americans should review where we came from, what we represent, and who we want to be. This is easy to do as we have documents that clearly state our ideals throughout our brief history. The first 3 of these to reread are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. In these, we clearly state the basic rights of ALL people, not just Americans, and we fought for our independence and built our country on these basic principals. These basic rights have been used to drive our laws, foreign policies, our human rights policies, and our early emigration policies. Even our Pledge of Allegiance finishes with “liberty and justice for ALL.” where all refers to all people, not just Americans … or at least that is what it once meant when it was first written in 1887.

In 1876, the people of France (not the government of France) gifted us one of our most prized possessions, the Statue of Liberty. This is especially meaningful, because it is one of the very few times in history when a monument was presented out of respect by by a foreign people, and it was in honor for our Liberty and Justice practices. At that time, we pretty much had open borders. The monument was dedicated in 1886 and the first thing read at the opening was “The New Colossus”. At that time, this sonnet was a tribute to our immigration policy and is currently engraved in the statue's base . This is who we were for our first 100+ years and all Americans need to be reminded of this as the forth important occasional reading exercise. This should be referenced in all immigration law. This is who our founders were and the spirit of our Constitution.

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus,
1883

Today, we are locking up children and people that are looking for a home. We are only allowing in people with money and are selecting people based on religion. We are considering building a wall to separate us from a long-time friendly neighbor. This is not who we were and our ancestors would be ashamed of who we became. I don’t know if we can accept all that want to come here, but we were able to do this once, and started to limit immigration because of bigotry and no other reason that is supportable by statistics and available data. We have no data demonstrating that large numbers of immigrants have caused much of a burden on our economy, nor has it ever been shown to increase crime or create security issues. It has only made us stronger as a country and recognized leader of the free world.

If we want to continue down this path of building walls, denying basic rights to those seeking asylum, and trying to limit immigration based on financial, religious, and ethnicity reasons, then we might as well start by melting down the Statue of Liberty, for we no longer deserve it or believe in the values it represents.

If we want to continue down this path, we would no longer would stand for “Liberty and Justice for All”. Is this who we want to be?