A moral dilemma

“No human being is illegal” is what many decent and compassionate individuals claim, but when it comes to immigration the issue is more complex.

Until we reach some utopian borderless world, it is a pretty persuasive to say that every nation has a right to control its borders and to decide who comes in and who stays out.

Those who sneak in without following the required legal process are illegal immigrants. Who they are, why they are coming and how they affect the receiver nation are all legitimate questions to ask.

It is estimated that there are between 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants in our country, and their children, if born in this country, are automatically granted citizenship. It has resulted in urban sprawl, creating new demands on our hospitals, our emergency rooms and our schools. It has put an extra burden on our infrastructure. Communities have been left to deal with the cost and the consequences and it has created resentment and anger.

What impacts, good and bad, illegal immigration ha had on communities is controversial and the subject of sometimes heated debates.

Part of the reason for this is that illegal immigrants are a very vulnerable group, primarily because they are in no position to complain. From a corporate point of view, they offer a source of workers who will not only work long hours in often deplorable conditions. They will also work for wages way below the legal minimum.

Cesar Chavez, a union organizer, opposed illegal immigration because it resulted in a downward spiral of wages. The bigger the pool of unskilled and unemployed workers, the easier it is to exploit them.

Our porous southern border with its underground tunnels makes a joke out of homeland security. It is a major entrance point for large amounts of illegal drugs and for anyone who may want to come in for whatever reason.

There is no question that we are partly to blame for the immigration dilemma. Our government heavily subsidized our agribusinesses and their exports to Mexico. Small Mexican family farmers could not compete. They lost whatever land they had and were left without means to feed their families. Trying to cross the dangerous desert and to make it across the border was the only option left for many of these dispossessed people.

Numberwise, we seem to have reached a critical mass where even decent and tolerant people and communities start fearing and resenting newcomers. In Europe, for instance, progressive governments are in danger of being toppled on this issue. People have shown a greater willingness to vote for the ultraconservative right and their strong anti-immigration platforms.

In Italy, the political right is campaigning on an anti-immigrant platform in the name of protecting Italian culture.

Progressive Denmark and Holland are also experiencing a backlash directed against immigration of Muslims, perceived by many as a Muslim invasion.

Finally, in France right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy was elected on a platform of law and order and a “get tough on immigration” policy. In the United States too the anti-immigrant and nationalistic sentiment is on the rise.

There are those who claim that walls are inhumane. True, walls don't have a good reputation. But what are the options as we strive to control our borders?

“No human being is illegal.” Who can disagree with this humane and compassionate proclamation, even though human beings occasionally carry out illegal acts?

Sen. Ted Kennedy exclaimed recently that we have a choice: “Either we choose our future as a nation of immigrants or as a nation of higher walls.”

CNN's Lou Dobbs said “We are a nation of immigrants, not illegal immigrants. And we are also a nation of laws.”

Civil rights leader T. Willard Fair believes that “amnesty for illegal workers is not just a slap in the face to black Americans; it is an economic disaster.”Finally we have Emma Lazarus' poem: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Isolationists, pundits, civil rights leaders, poets … who are you going to believe?

If nothing else, these remarks, from this diverse collection of people, illustrate some of the moral dilemmas that we all face in deciding how to best cope with America's immigration challeges.