3/21/21

By Josh Rubin

From the right we hear that the solution to the immigration “problem” is to convince migrants that they shouldn’t come. And the current administration seems to agree. Its representatives keep saying things like sorry, this is a bad time to come. We aren’t ready for you. The right would sharpen that rhetoric.

But far more important than what we say is what we do. And what we are doing is keeping the border closed using an unjustified health order that pretends that the reason we are not letting migrants in has something to do with Covid. Medical experts all agree that the basis for invoking Title 24 is nonsense, but the current administration finds this piece of Trump’s racist toolkit useful, and has left it in place.

I’ll leave aside the very compelling moral arguments for a moment, and point out, underscore, what is becoming obvious. If you close the border against people who are trying to save the lives of their children, you will end up with a lot of children separating from their families and coming across. And many who do cross with their families will be separated from them, on the basis that that an aunt or a grandparent or adult sibling is not a parent.

So, we have what the right is desperate to call a crisis at the border. And the current administration calls a challenge.

What we call it may make some sort of immediate political difference, but taking a longer view might be more enlightening . First, the goal of an immigration policy cannot be, even in the short term, dissuasion. Disincentivizing migration means making it look worse for the migrant than what the migrant is fleeing. First, it is unlikely to succeed, because what they are fleeing is dire. But second, it is cruel. It is cruel even if the language is more gentle. Actions speak louder than words. We are expelling you does not end up much different than Remain in Mexico. Desperate people are still being led back across bridges into danger.

We are doing tremendous damage to these people. We are doing harm to ourselves. This is what happens when we try to stand in the way of forces so much more powerful than our own shallow political interests. No matter how loud we bang our drums and blow our ram’s horns, the sun will not stop. We would be far better off learning to live with the new day beginning.