Lately I’ve been seeking to read things written by those who may have a different perspective than I do. I appreciated the nuance, and personal narrative shared as the son of an immigrant. I was also intrigued by the centrist viewpoint presented. This was thought provoking, excellent storytelling, and it’s reaffirming to my theory that we Americans have a lot more in common than the divisive mainstream headlines would like us to believe.
Hey Sam. Really love this piece. Thought provoking. I do wonder who you are thinking of when you say law enforcement was blocked from prosecuting immigrants who committed crimes. Did sanctuary cities really prevent criminal prosecutions? ... There is a whole branch of law devoted to deportation of immigrants who committed crimes, and there are many enumerated crimes that will get you deported. It's not easy to avoid deportation if you've committed a serious crime or even a non-violent, minor crime. (A separate issue is deported immigrants who continually re-enter and commit new crimes - laws have gotten tougher on recidivists, but I'm sure many get through.) I also wonder about not having any lenience for immigrants who have committed a crime here. I have had many clients who got into scrapes when they were young men and have totally reformed their lives, have US citizen spouses and kids and have established productive lives here. I think it's best to allow case-by-case adjudication on these cases, which is the system we've had in place for a long time. The law needs to be flexible to consider the totality of an individual's life ... My concern is of course Trump's demonization of immigrants as criminals, similar to how the Nazis initially focused on Jewish criminals to whip up frenzy against Jews. Same playbook...I have lots of thoughts on the militancy and lack of decency on the far left as well... Another day...Un abrazo, tu amiga.
Immigrants have always been manipulates to fight over the crumbs. Indeed many #foreign bationals# are renowned for their ability to set up small businesses in bad neighborhoods. Stephen Miller stipulates thar ICE target 711. 711 is the backbone of convenience stores that serve food deserts. 711 is at the heart many urban. communities that lack accessible resources.
Imigration has always been a taboo subject that is difficult to define and quantify particularjy in certain.countryes shrouded hn mythologies like the american dream.
Thereafter the far left set up a paradigm where crme was decommissioned from certain cities which have in essence creates deep havoc and patently unsafe environments. Poor people living in low income areas are conditioned to live in areas where crime has increased while political insist crime has decrease because certain crimes are no longer quantified. Subsidized housing moved from family obligations to #re entry# program. Criminal backgrounds checks are interspersed with caveats that proclaim a period in rehab (at some unknown date) provides a measure of acceptable never seen before.
Plantir (the data base that will enbrace Orwelian themes was uses to house the Housing 199 in the City of San Jose. Their Housing 100 program stipulated that housing the top 100 individuals who used jails, energecy rooms and other high cost County services assiduousjy saved money. That is except thar no housing agency bothers to teach call for service statistics because they don't have to. They just joined the phrase #stably housed# to claim succes for politicians who exist exclusively on #sound bites# The statistics to back up the claims of #stability# did not exist because the parameters of success were wholly elastic across the board.
The statistics on illegal aliens are not that they are dominating the welfare system. Rather hat certain NGO's choose to serve them more of less exclusively. Thereafter those citizens who are left struggling in rapidly escalating poverty are pitted against them. They were promised #crumbs# that don't exist at this time.
Thereafter as the choices for the working poor grow smaller they are certainly suseptible to being influenced that the demise of the society rests on illegal immigration. It is a potent myth building exercise.
Thereafter the network of highly addictive drugs meth and fetanyl) have destroyed so many lives. This #conspiracy# is not solely conducted by one identifiable migrant group or gang. That illustrious conspiracy is made up of a myriad diverse group of players from slumlotda to property managers to the whole network of runners who street dealers who can deal openly with bo objections in an increasing number of cities.
Furthermore let's not forget that Trump pardoned a US citizen who ran an online platform for drug dealing. So much for the Republican earnest commitment to fentanyl and halting dangerous criminals.
Thereafter to clump drug dealing as the exclusive domain of MS 13 is short sighted and frankly has littkr to no merit. However it fits in with concepts like harm reduction which do very little to address the public health catastrophe created by meth and fentayl at this time.
Sam, I read this piece yesterday and ponder it for the past 24 hours. I was the LA times immigration writer for several years in the early 1970s and while it was the worst assignment I ever had in terms of my career and relationships with my colleagues, I find myself even today at about the same place you are. The two handed reporter…. You can’t help but love the human beings. You encounter along the line as it’s called and you can’t help but wonder about the impact of what is essentially lawlessness and uncontrolled human movement. My grandmother came from Sweden in 1908 and was probably an illegal in that she told immigration officials at Ellis Island that she was headed for her parents in Grants Pass, OR. In reality her parents were still in Norway and she was headed for her sister’s house in Minneapolis Minnesota. Lay that process question aside and you are left with another question entirely. Was 1908 really a functional equivalent of 2025 in terms of the implications of immigration. Immigrants came without much in the way of guarantee back then. Today there are significant costs to admitting literally millions of the world‘s most needy. Many of them don’t impose themselves on us. In fact, they earn their way and then some, but the country is a good deal more crowded now it was then. And there is quite literally no way for us to accept as many as would want to come with open borders. I see some stack notes at suggest no national boundaries are legitimate. That’s not gonna stand up, at least not for a century or two and I’m not even sure that it should. There is a main streak in this mess of course. Cultural change is gonna happen but the ideologues on either side seem to make it into a zero sum game. That’s headed in a very wrong direction too. Aztlan will not be restored. Mexico ruled Alta California for 21 years and not very well at that. The gringos are 175 years and still hanging on, not likely to surrender much . Believing they will just leave and restore the former grandeur of much of the West and Southwest of America is not a viable political outlook. Dialing back the flame wars on both sides is the best alternative, but I just don’t know whether we are going to learn to do that. So we will all, you and I and some of your commenters, try to keep the peace.
trying my best to see the many varied and complex sides to this whole thing....long ago, i realized that everyone was right, or right about a lot....
"...Was 1908 really a functional equivalent of 2025 in terms of the implications of immigration. Immigrants came without much in the way of guarantee back then. Today there are significant costs to admitting literally millions of the world‘s most needy. Many of them don’t impose themselves on us. In fact, they earn their way and then some, but the country is a good deal more crowded now it was then. And there is quite literally no way for us to accept as many as would want to come with open borders ..."
Sam—Very thoughtful piece on a longstanding and divisive issue in this country. Reform of our immigration system is long overdue. So many prior attempts to bring about change have failed. Political divisiveness and general chicanery on both sides of the aisle crushes incentives for compromise and change. We need voices who don’t care about political labels and ideology to speak the truth. And we need leadership from all levels of government, citizens, institutions, and business leaders to make sure it happens. A tall order, but it has to happen. Extremism at both ends of the spectrum is destroying this country.
Thanks for always making sense in what you publish.
Great post. I especially appreciated how you explained that Cesar Chavez opposed illegal immigration. In fact he, Walter Reuther and Walter Mondale marched at the California Baja border to protest illegals coming into the U.S. There is a tension between those who support the rights of low earning American citizens and those who do not want a crack down on illegal immigration.
Like yourself, I come from immigrant stock. My parents came from the original "shit-hole country"-Ireland- right before the Crash of 1929 and worked their way into some form of economic respectability. However, Ireland realized that its main export had to be more than its people. It worked with the Kennedys to remove the incentive, "the easy way out of Ireland" with the Immigration Act of 1965 which compelled the Irish to stay in Ireland and make a go of it rather than buggering off to Boston. That, with foreign investment driving both industrial and educational policy, Ireland is now "the most educated country in the world" (a recent poll indicates the Irish has over 55% with a BA or above) and one of the highest GDP/per capita in the world. In fact, it's no longer a "shit-hole country" but has become a magnet for emigrants who have brought their own ironies. The tedious thing about Mexico for Americans, is that it will not do what it must do for its own people, invest and educate, but fobs off their problems on the gringos(while killing them through the drug trade) That's what makes us angry and that is what has brought us Trump.
Hey Kevin, good to hear from you again. Had not heard of the Irish case....i learned early on in Mexico that departure may help the individual Mexican, usually does, but does not help the country....hurts it mightily
Restacked! I knew your take would be a good, accurate, and fair one. I’ll never have to worry about voting for you for president though; you don’t have the personality disorders for that. Every American needs to read this essay. It’s real, balanced, and true. Quite unlike both “sides” of our government. As an aside, I believe the majority of the “No Kings” protests will be one sided; I hope that side remembers that they put a person in place to be elected for president without a single vote. That being said, the other side needs to be cognizant of the entertainer that the current president is versus the problem solver we need.
THE US immigration system has been broken since I was called
Rojo, El Gringo pata salda when I worked los Campos in the 50's.
I lived with the Legal Mexicans and worked alongside the Braceros y Mojados.
What would Cesar Chavez have been without Dolores Huerta?
Huerta is still among us!
AND
Migration is a given planet and species wise. It's called survival. We've been on the move since we crawled out of the swamps or got thrown out of the garden of Eden.
When I was born there were about
2 billion humans. Today almost 8 billion. I've payed attention to such since reading Thomas Malthus back in 1958. I'm now 84.
I continue to give away Sam's early books on Mexico. Love the Popsicle Kings.
The Trumps and Miller's are not the answer to anything let alone migration.
Migration is a planetary issue that needs the cooperation and planning by us all.
Ha! Cal thanks so much. The popsicle kings story was one of my favorite I wrote in Mexico. The country could use another hundred products like the popsicle, which took Mexicans from the poverty to the middle class without forcing them to migrate illegally or traffic drugs....thanks for doing that, Cal!
We know that wrong can't be undone. We also know that Chinese nationals came into America when they saw how easy it was. I feel terrible for those who are fleeing poverty But we can't support all of them.I did research this started in,2018,under Trump, but got a lot worse when Biden refused to shut the border, the reason for that was Joe Biden and his son Hunter have major investment in business in China But so don't
Donald Trump with Donald Jr.So they don't want China mad, so fentanyl and Chinese nationals and terrioist have fled into America.That's the real problem with MS-13,and other gangs. In sanctuary cities the illagels inculding hard core criminals don't have to answer to anyone. Yes we are getting some of them but innocent people are being trapped by ICE because the border was never closed.
i agree with a lot of this. we overshoot and don't adjust policies, and the effects are wide-ranging, rippling politically and economically through the country. Folks who likely would be worth helping are harmed by this intransigent compassion....thanks for taking the time to write!
I live in Portland, Oregon, a poster child of extreme leftist tactics as far as protests are concerned. I drove past the ICE offices on my way to pick my son up from school and it was spray painted with expletives and a group of anarchist punks and masked young white people were camping outside with garbage and tents and a hand painted sign that said
“Immigrants welcome here”
My knee jerk reaction was an eye roll. An othering. A familiar frustration that seeped in sometime in 2020 when the same groups were lighting our city on fire. We have lost the plot and are playing the role that the other “side” wants us to.
No immigrant wants to hang out in your garbage camp dude, is what I wanted to say.
But Peter’s wise words are a really potent piece of wisdom here. If we keep up the well worn and tragically familiar dance of “us vs them” then the Mr Burns’ (from the Simpsons) of the world will continue to clap their hands in delight and we will continue to destroy ourselves.
To see ourselves in others is a challenging and profound spiritual practice. It takes discipline and that is exactly what is lacking as far as strategy goes. To “win” this will take a visionary response instead of a knee jerk emotional reactions. It’s a long game and I know we’re all tired.
Thanks for this essay. Your grandfather and father’s story is inspiring and moving. Your experience in this field is helpful to put it in perspective.
Silicon valley is full of successful immigrants. They cane from everywhere. Imagine if every step of thevway they were worrying about what documentation they needed to carry with them. In effect overnight the US became an authoritarian stafe. Naive tourists thrown into #private# jails for minor issues. It says a great deal about a national climate where anyone justify those actions. Moreover needless to say this climate doesn't promote creativity and innovation. The only thing it promotes is fear.
Your point of seeing ourselves in others is written beautifully in the 12x12 on page 90. It was and remains one of the hardest things to remember to practice in sobriety.
I’m pro immigration, an immigrant myself and see how broken even the H1B system is. But I oppose illegals, while equally demanding a fix to the system.
A list of changes to immigration policy would make this article super powerful many of which have been talked about but bear repeating. Equally significant, we need to fix welfare — illegals in states like CA where I live use a lot of the services, which is unacceptable given our own citizens’ needs. To that point there’s no weight in diverting attention to taxing “the rich”— that’s hardly useful here, although popular, it doesn’t help immigration per se. Much more important to note in this context are changes needed to our broken immigration system AND welfare services. People would willingly be legal if they could. We need them just as much as they need America. And yes, criminals need to be kicked out. But when there’s no system anything goes… and we’re all politicians’ useful idiots.
well put….problem is, the changes needed are not sexy, they are only the product of fairly unnoticed work by lawmakers, staff, etc. … Rocks, molotov cocktails, raids on schools and parks — none of that leads to the calm work that needs to be done. thank you for taking the time to write….sq
Thanks so much for your perspective. And good advice. I got a good laugh when I saw a placard that said "CHINGA TU MAGA" and wanted one for myself. But, inflammatory, so I'll change my mind on that. Hope you can check out this blogpost from a young man of my acquaintance- one of the treasures you write of that we have gained from immigration. https://alexmantanona.com/f/america-the-bruised-america-the-beautiful
Sam, I wish this could be on the front page of every newspaper and that you would be interviewed on the nightly news. More importantly, how can we get you on an advisory board with those making decisions in DC? Why is it so rare to have a balanced view of issues in this country?
I agree. I think it’s so rare because we so frequently communicate online and take in news through social media and algorithm based sites. So we’re more and more isolated in our own worldview. The loudest voices on the internet are driving public discourse, when in reality the majority is much more centrist in our worldview.
Wow! You challenged us to pause, think, and consider sides of this issue that I hadn't thought about.
Lately I’ve been seeking to read things written by those who may have a different perspective than I do. I appreciated the nuance, and personal narrative shared as the son of an immigrant. I was also intrigued by the centrist viewpoint presented. This was thought provoking, excellent storytelling, and it’s reaffirming to my theory that we Americans have a lot more in common than the divisive mainstream headlines would like us to believe.
Thanks so much. It’s an honest reflection of the complexity of the topic and the cost to communities and lives in either direction we move.
Hey Sam. Really love this piece. Thought provoking. I do wonder who you are thinking of when you say law enforcement was blocked from prosecuting immigrants who committed crimes. Did sanctuary cities really prevent criminal prosecutions? ... There is a whole branch of law devoted to deportation of immigrants who committed crimes, and there are many enumerated crimes that will get you deported. It's not easy to avoid deportation if you've committed a serious crime or even a non-violent, minor crime. (A separate issue is deported immigrants who continually re-enter and commit new crimes - laws have gotten tougher on recidivists, but I'm sure many get through.) I also wonder about not having any lenience for immigrants who have committed a crime here. I have had many clients who got into scrapes when they were young men and have totally reformed their lives, have US citizen spouses and kids and have established productive lives here. I think it's best to allow case-by-case adjudication on these cases, which is the system we've had in place for a long time. The law needs to be flexible to consider the totality of an individual's life ... My concern is of course Trump's demonization of immigrants as criminals, similar to how the Nazis initially focused on Jewish criminals to whip up frenzy against Jews. Same playbook...I have lots of thoughts on the militancy and lack of decency on the far left as well... Another day...Un abrazo, tu amiga.
Excellent piece Sam. Love the nuance and examples you shared here. Thanks for sharing your insights and questions.
well, thanks so much La! glad you found it worthwhile....
Immigrants have always been manipulates to fight over the crumbs. Indeed many #foreign bationals# are renowned for their ability to set up small businesses in bad neighborhoods. Stephen Miller stipulates thar ICE target 711. 711 is the backbone of convenience stores that serve food deserts. 711 is at the heart many urban. communities that lack accessible resources.
Imigration has always been a taboo subject that is difficult to define and quantify particularjy in certain.countryes shrouded hn mythologies like the american dream.
Thereafter the far left set up a paradigm where crme was decommissioned from certain cities which have in essence creates deep havoc and patently unsafe environments. Poor people living in low income areas are conditioned to live in areas where crime has increased while political insist crime has decrease because certain crimes are no longer quantified. Subsidized housing moved from family obligations to #re entry# program. Criminal backgrounds checks are interspersed with caveats that proclaim a period in rehab (at some unknown date) provides a measure of acceptable never seen before.
Plantir (the data base that will enbrace Orwelian themes was uses to house the Housing 199 in the City of San Jose. Their Housing 100 program stipulated that housing the top 100 individuals who used jails, energecy rooms and other high cost County services assiduousjy saved money. That is except thar no housing agency bothers to teach call for service statistics because they don't have to. They just joined the phrase #stably housed# to claim succes for politicians who exist exclusively on #sound bites# The statistics to back up the claims of #stability# did not exist because the parameters of success were wholly elastic across the board.
The statistics on illegal aliens are not that they are dominating the welfare system. Rather hat certain NGO's choose to serve them more of less exclusively. Thereafter those citizens who are left struggling in rapidly escalating poverty are pitted against them. They were promised #crumbs# that don't exist at this time.
Thereafter as the choices for the working poor grow smaller they are certainly suseptible to being influenced that the demise of the society rests on illegal immigration. It is a potent myth building exercise.
Thereafter the network of highly addictive drugs meth and fetanyl) have destroyed so many lives. This #conspiracy# is not solely conducted by one identifiable migrant group or gang. That illustrious conspiracy is made up of a myriad diverse group of players from slumlotda to property managers to the whole network of runners who street dealers who can deal openly with bo objections in an increasing number of cities.
Furthermore let's not forget that Trump pardoned a US citizen who ran an online platform for drug dealing. So much for the Republican earnest commitment to fentanyl and halting dangerous criminals.
Thereafter to clump drug dealing as the exclusive domain of MS 13 is short sighted and frankly has littkr to no merit. However it fits in with concepts like harm reduction which do very little to address the public health catastrophe created by meth and fentayl at this time.
Sam, I read this piece yesterday and ponder it for the past 24 hours. I was the LA times immigration writer for several years in the early 1970s and while it was the worst assignment I ever had in terms of my career and relationships with my colleagues, I find myself even today at about the same place you are. The two handed reporter…. You can’t help but love the human beings. You encounter along the line as it’s called and you can’t help but wonder about the impact of what is essentially lawlessness and uncontrolled human movement. My grandmother came from Sweden in 1908 and was probably an illegal in that she told immigration officials at Ellis Island that she was headed for her parents in Grants Pass, OR. In reality her parents were still in Norway and she was headed for her sister’s house in Minneapolis Minnesota. Lay that process question aside and you are left with another question entirely. Was 1908 really a functional equivalent of 2025 in terms of the implications of immigration. Immigrants came without much in the way of guarantee back then. Today there are significant costs to admitting literally millions of the world‘s most needy. Many of them don’t impose themselves on us. In fact, they earn their way and then some, but the country is a good deal more crowded now it was then. And there is quite literally no way for us to accept as many as would want to come with open borders. I see some stack notes at suggest no national boundaries are legitimate. That’s not gonna stand up, at least not for a century or two and I’m not even sure that it should. There is a main streak in this mess of course. Cultural change is gonna happen but the ideologues on either side seem to make it into a zero sum game. That’s headed in a very wrong direction too. Aztlan will not be restored. Mexico ruled Alta California for 21 years and not very well at that. The gringos are 175 years and still hanging on, not likely to surrender much . Believing they will just leave and restore the former grandeur of much of the West and Southwest of America is not a viable political outlook. Dialing back the flame wars on both sides is the best alternative, but I just don’t know whether we are going to learn to do that. So we will all, you and I and some of your commenters, try to keep the peace.
trying my best to see the many varied and complex sides to this whole thing....long ago, i realized that everyone was right, or right about a lot....
"...Was 1908 really a functional equivalent of 2025 in terms of the implications of immigration. Immigrants came without much in the way of guarantee back then. Today there are significant costs to admitting literally millions of the world‘s most needy. Many of them don’t impose themselves on us. In fact, they earn their way and then some, but the country is a good deal more crowded now it was then. And there is quite literally no way for us to accept as many as would want to come with open borders ..."
Sam—Very thoughtful piece on a longstanding and divisive issue in this country. Reform of our immigration system is long overdue. So many prior attempts to bring about change have failed. Political divisiveness and general chicanery on both sides of the aisle crushes incentives for compromise and change. We need voices who don’t care about political labels and ideology to speak the truth. And we need leadership from all levels of government, citizens, institutions, and business leaders to make sure it happens. A tall order, but it has to happen. Extremism at both ends of the spectrum is destroying this country.
Thanks for always making sense in what you publish.
thanks Billy. appreciate the kind words and the thoughtful comment.
Great post. I especially appreciated how you explained that Cesar Chavez opposed illegal immigration. In fact he, Walter Reuther and Walter Mondale marched at the California Baja border to protest illegals coming into the U.S. There is a tension between those who support the rights of low earning American citizens and those who do not want a crack down on illegal immigration.
Like yourself, I come from immigrant stock. My parents came from the original "shit-hole country"-Ireland- right before the Crash of 1929 and worked their way into some form of economic respectability. However, Ireland realized that its main export had to be more than its people. It worked with the Kennedys to remove the incentive, "the easy way out of Ireland" with the Immigration Act of 1965 which compelled the Irish to stay in Ireland and make a go of it rather than buggering off to Boston. That, with foreign investment driving both industrial and educational policy, Ireland is now "the most educated country in the world" (a recent poll indicates the Irish has over 55% with a BA or above) and one of the highest GDP/per capita in the world. In fact, it's no longer a "shit-hole country" but has become a magnet for emigrants who have brought their own ironies. The tedious thing about Mexico for Americans, is that it will not do what it must do for its own people, invest and educate, but fobs off their problems on the gringos(while killing them through the drug trade) That's what makes us angry and that is what has brought us Trump.
Hey Kevin, good to hear from you again. Had not heard of the Irish case....i learned early on in Mexico that departure may help the individual Mexican, usually does, but does not help the country....hurts it mightily
Restacked! I knew your take would be a good, accurate, and fair one. I’ll never have to worry about voting for you for president though; you don’t have the personality disorders for that. Every American needs to read this essay. It’s real, balanced, and true. Quite unlike both “sides” of our government. As an aside, I believe the majority of the “No Kings” protests will be one sided; I hope that side remembers that they put a person in place to be elected for president without a single vote. That being said, the other side needs to be cognizant of the entertainer that the current president is versus the problem solver we need.
good stuff Jim!
Excellent column and comments.
THE US immigration system has been broken since I was called
Rojo, El Gringo pata salda when I worked los Campos in the 50's.
I lived with the Legal Mexicans and worked alongside the Braceros y Mojados.
What would Cesar Chavez have been without Dolores Huerta?
Huerta is still among us!
AND
Migration is a given planet and species wise. It's called survival. We've been on the move since we crawled out of the swamps or got thrown out of the garden of Eden.
When I was born there were about
2 billion humans. Today almost 8 billion. I've payed attention to such since reading Thomas Malthus back in 1958. I'm now 84.
I continue to give away Sam's early books on Mexico. Love the Popsicle Kings.
The Trumps and Miller's are not the answer to anything let alone migration.
Migration is a planetary issue that needs the cooperation and planning by us all.
Ha! Cal thanks so much. The popsicle kings story was one of my favorite I wrote in Mexico. The country could use another hundred products like the popsicle, which took Mexicans from the poverty to the middle class without forcing them to migrate illegally or traffic drugs....thanks for doing that, Cal!
We know that wrong can't be undone. We also know that Chinese nationals came into America when they saw how easy it was. I feel terrible for those who are fleeing poverty But we can't support all of them.I did research this started in,2018,under Trump, but got a lot worse when Biden refused to shut the border, the reason for that was Joe Biden and his son Hunter have major investment in business in China But so don't
Donald Trump with Donald Jr.So they don't want China mad, so fentanyl and Chinese nationals and terrioist have fled into America.That's the real problem with MS-13,and other gangs. In sanctuary cities the illagels inculding hard core criminals don't have to answer to anyone. Yes we are getting some of them but innocent people are being trapped by ICE because the border was never closed.
i agree with a lot of this. we overshoot and don't adjust policies, and the effects are wide-ranging, rippling politically and economically through the country. Folks who likely would be worth helping are harmed by this intransigent compassion....thanks for taking the time to write!
I live in Portland, Oregon, a poster child of extreme leftist tactics as far as protests are concerned. I drove past the ICE offices on my way to pick my son up from school and it was spray painted with expletives and a group of anarchist punks and masked young white people were camping outside with garbage and tents and a hand painted sign that said
“Immigrants welcome here”
My knee jerk reaction was an eye roll. An othering. A familiar frustration that seeped in sometime in 2020 when the same groups were lighting our city on fire. We have lost the plot and are playing the role that the other “side” wants us to.
No immigrant wants to hang out in your garbage camp dude, is what I wanted to say.
But Peter’s wise words are a really potent piece of wisdom here. If we keep up the well worn and tragically familiar dance of “us vs them” then the Mr Burns’ (from the Simpsons) of the world will continue to clap their hands in delight and we will continue to destroy ourselves.
To see ourselves in others is a challenging and profound spiritual practice. It takes discipline and that is exactly what is lacking as far as strategy goes. To “win” this will take a visionary response instead of a knee jerk emotional reactions. It’s a long game and I know we’re all tired.
Thanks for this essay. Your grandfather and father’s story is inspiring and moving. Your experience in this field is helpful to put it in perspective.
Silicon valley is full of successful immigrants. They cane from everywhere. Imagine if every step of thevway they were worrying about what documentation they needed to carry with them. In effect overnight the US became an authoritarian stafe. Naive tourists thrown into #private# jails for minor issues. It says a great deal about a national climate where anyone justify those actions. Moreover needless to say this climate doesn't promote creativity and innovation. The only thing it promotes is fear.
Your point of seeing ourselves in others is written beautifully in the 12x12 on page 90. It was and remains one of the hardest things to remember to practice in sobriety.
"No immigrant wants to hang out in your garbage camp dude, is what I wanted to say...."
Thoughtful, sensible and wise as usual.
I’m pro immigration, an immigrant myself and see how broken even the H1B system is. But I oppose illegals, while equally demanding a fix to the system.
A list of changes to immigration policy would make this article super powerful many of which have been talked about but bear repeating. Equally significant, we need to fix welfare — illegals in states like CA where I live use a lot of the services, which is unacceptable given our own citizens’ needs. To that point there’s no weight in diverting attention to taxing “the rich”— that’s hardly useful here, although popular, it doesn’t help immigration per se. Much more important to note in this context are changes needed to our broken immigration system AND welfare services. People would willingly be legal if they could. We need them just as much as they need America. And yes, criminals need to be kicked out. But when there’s no system anything goes… and we’re all politicians’ useful idiots.
well put….problem is, the changes needed are not sexy, they are only the product of fairly unnoticed work by lawmakers, staff, etc. … Rocks, molotov cocktails, raids on schools and parks — none of that leads to the calm work that needs to be done. thank you for taking the time to write….sq
So true! We’re now all beholden to performance 🎭 only!
Thanks so much for your perspective. And good advice. I got a good laugh when I saw a placard that said "CHINGA TU MAGA" and wanted one for myself. But, inflammatory, so I'll change my mind on that. Hope you can check out this blogpost from a young man of my acquaintance- one of the treasures you write of that we have gained from immigration. https://alexmantanona.com/f/america-the-bruised-america-the-beautiful
Margaret, thank you. I'll give it a read....
Sam, I wish this could be on the front page of every newspaper and that you would be interviewed on the nightly news. More importantly, how can we get you on an advisory board with those making decisions in DC? Why is it so rare to have a balanced view of issues in this country?
I agree. I think it’s so rare because we so frequently communicate online and take in news through social media and algorithm based sites. So we’re more and more isolated in our own worldview. The loudest voices on the internet are driving public discourse, when in reality the majority is much more centrist in our worldview.
This essay is excellent.
thank you Selene!!! i appreciate you taking the time….
Thanks Jude!!! you’re so kind.