If you don’t understand why immigration is not essentially political you need to go to the movie Nuremberg which has recently opened in theaters. No, the treatment of the immigrant is first and foremost, moral.  The political response is only an echo of your own moral self.  Very few of us would be on this land if some indigenous version of our current administration had been in charge in the 19th and early 20th century.  It may be time to package up and return the Statue of Liberty to France like some misfired Amazon purchase. Prior to any due process our government has implied the entire population of Afghanistan guilty of a terrible crime committed by one deranged human being in our country with more than its share of well armed, deranged well-settled good standing citizens.  Immigration is still critical life saving operation for many of our former allies and supporters. Making political capital out this current tragedy/crime is simply immoral. In the American ethic and legal system immigrants are not so much immigrants but individuals living on American soil entitled by proud tradition and law to be treated with dignity and justice.  Up until a year ago, the pride of America is we aspired to treat individuals as individuals with the rights due any human being.  The United States was a courageous form of democracy with a moral commitment as well as a legal requirement to the individual human being.  Minus due process the immigration enforcement has become first a moral transgression and then a legal violation of human rights.  The President and members of Congress need to declare an inservice afternoon and go to  the movie Nuremberg.  

A modest Proposal for Good

World War II was an important lesson to nations in it taught us that no matter how morally aberrant a nation can get, sanity sooner or later returns and justice is served.  The arc of justice may be longer than our current administration’s limited imaginations can see, but someday the passions of the day will be sorted and guilt assigned. Until then, we as individual citizens striving to return to our democratic ethics and morality have to maintain our integrity regarding the treatment of the vulnerable in any context. Their danger is our danger. Their children are citizens of the world as are ours and deserve peace and safety. Good would be to gather around the refugees of our time and protected them. From what? Let’s face it, in this era from us.