What is going on with immigration will redefine the history of this nation. Beckett and Kafka recognized the seeds of this problem long ago. The humane solution to the immigration problem is the administration of a rational law and funding with fidelity to move the system of justice along again with the welfare of the people in the process as the first priority. Instead this nation’s leadership stripped the already inadequate administration of the immigration system of its legal resources to fund a policing force operating with no apparent discernible laws outside of prejudice to enforce the intent of this irrational system.

Again, no question about it, the country has been built and continues to be built and maintained on the strong backs and steady hearts of immigrants. Get in your car and drive through nearly any city in America and you will see immigrants just beyond that air conditioned interior of your car working hard and sweating away in the day’s heat. The work you see if you are honest, is not necessarily the work you are preparing your children for, but if that work isn’t done, your life style will have to hit the breaks. A lot of people looking, working, and paying taxes to become citizens are in a years long line of a waiting list for hearings and proceedings. The court and legal systems are so backed up that the process is a slow walk measured in years. An now, with the round-ups and instant deportation sans due process, many of these citizen aspirants could find themselves in one of the cattle cars heading for a cage manned by people looking for a place in hell to store them. Or if they are ‘lucky’ they will may just dumped somewhere over the border to start over with or without their families. 

A Modest Proposal for Good

One more comment on the problem. I would caution people about venting their rage at this injustice only on the individual ICE workers. Yes, they have a bad job, and some, but not all, are bullies. It remains true the voters of this country not only gave them the go ahead, but they funded it. This is an ‘us’ disaster. We are here due to collective issues of cult, stone cold denial, and political ineptitude. We had been warned and we as a whole culture didn’t listen. We as individuals and small groups may have just passionately pin-focused on a few favorite issues thinking those issues were the only ones that mattered. That narrow focus in a close election was enough to tip the balance. Connect with your sense of good at the level of core personal and democratic values and prioritize three. Then add a dash of integrity and look for candidates. We need the power back. Whatever their issues are, follow their line of integrity in action back to their values. It should be a pretty straight line (as always, not perfect)and if it smells bad, don’t vote for them. Finally, we need a Congress and not a personality cult. We need fair and just laws backed with the resources to make them work and not a sanctioned slow walk to hell. We don’t want history to remember us for the American Kristallnachts of 2025..