3/24/21

By Josh Rubin

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST HOPE

Some of us have been to the border. Both sides. We have spent time with people who want to cross into the US, most of whom have friends and family here. Mothers, fathers, children. Young men and women who come to find jobs.

They are not frightening. They do not act threatening. Many believe in a god that has brought them to this point in their lives, and that they are justified in a belief that there are good forces at play that that would redeem them, save them from violence and poverty and persecution. Despite the cruelty of the existence that has driven them from their homes, they believe in a universe that will reward their faith.

The news today is full of politicians opining about what it would take to keep them out. They have to learn that all their efforts, their long journeys, will not work, they say. If we do not convince them that it is hopeless, they will keep coming. As long as they have hope. As long as we don’t load them onto planes and buses and transport them back to the homes of despair they left behind, they will pack up their few goods, and, by hook, by crook, come to our border, and cross when they can, in pursuit of a better life.

We need, we are told, to convince them they will not find a better life here. That despair will follow them here, and wherever they go. So, they might as well stay home with violence, poverty, and hunger.

I know, I have seen, people who are willing to send that message. Some are obvious. We saw them at the Capitol on June 6. We have seen them come to harass us at our vigils. We see them in the halls of Congress. We see them in the DHS Secretary, who has made the rounds in the media the last few days, reassuring those on the right flank of the current administration, almost proudly, that the border is closed. It is closed under the pretense that the pandemic justifies its closure, a pretense that plays on an age-old fear of “disease-ridden foreigners” that no medical evidence supports.

So, what we see is a campaign against hope. Will it work? I don’t think it will. I have met some of these people, and their hope awes me. But the campaign against hope will cause much pain. It will kill people. There is blood on the hands of these merchants of despair.

Still, they will come.