There is a good column by Mona Charen on immigration issues in The Bulwark today:
https://www.thebulwark.com/greg-abbott-scrooge/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
The subtitle is , "Our immigration problem calls for generosity, not cruelty". Charen makes the point that generosity would be a win/win for everyone.
From the article:
"On Christmas Eve in Washington, D.C. the temperature plunged to 15 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest on record. In our neighborhood, people were exchanging hints on the Nextdoor app about opening taps to drip (it prevents pipes from freezing) and avoiding black ice on roads. Some were admonishing their neighbors for leaving dogs outside too long. “It’s friggin’ 15 degrees!”
"And yet, the governor of Texas nonetheless decided to dump another 130 men, women, and children—some wearing just t-shirts—on the doorstep of Vice President Kamala Harris’s official residence. Three buses arrived between 8 and 10 p.m., and, thanks to the work of Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, the dazed and confused migrants were offered blankets and conveyed to local churches. Several restaurants donated food. So the immigrants were okay. But without that intervention, we must assume that the bus drivers were under instructions to leave them there, in a residential neighborhood, on a frigid night, wearing only light clothing, not speaking the language, and having no idea where they were. This brings to 8,700 the number of immigrants Gov. Greg Abbott has shipped to Washington this year. Another 6,500 have been bused to New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia."
"It isn’t that Abbott didn’t anticipate the coming weather. In a December 20 letter to President Biden, he wrote: "With cold temperatures gripping Texas, your inaction to secure the southern border is putting the lives of migrants at risk, particularly in the City of El Paso. With thousands of men, women, and children illegally crossing into Texas every day, and with the expectation that those numbers will only increase if Title 42 expulsions end, the state is overburdened as we respond to this disaster caused by you and your administration. Your policies will leave many people in the bitter, dangerous cold as a polar vortex moves into Texas."
"Help us understand the reasoning here. Is the problem that Biden has caused human suffering by letting people be exposed to freezing temperatures? In that case, how is the solution to move people to another freezing jurisdiction and dump them on the sidewalk?"
"Some Republicans love this performative malice.... They know it appeals to a swath of GOP primary voters who dine on a steady diet of hysteria about the border."
Yes, this country is being swamped by would-be immigrants, and a mature polity would address the problem with sensible reforms.... But that’s not what the governors of Florida and Texas are demanding. They and their right-wing media claque are saying that immigrants are clamoring for admission to the United States only because President Biden has an “open borders” policy.
"They repeat this mantra even though it flatly contradicts another of their favorite talking points, namely that the border patrol has experienced record numbers of encounters with would-be crossers. The CPB reports that agents had 2.2 million encounters with illegal border crossers in fiscal year 2022—a new record. (Many are repeat crossers.) If the border were truly open, the border patrol would not be apprehending anyone, right? They’d be standing aside and waving them on in. In fact, the constant GOP refrain about the border being “open” may actually be aggravating the problem by disseminating the impression around the globe that it’s worth making the attempt to get into the United States."
"Here is the complicated reality. It is not Biden’s fault that so many people want to come to the United States....People want to come here because 1) so many nations around the globe are hellish and a number of those are within walking distance; 2) this is a place where people with a good work ethic can get ahead and enjoy the blessings of liberty; 3) our immigration laws and rules are confusing."
"The vast majority of would-be entrants are not sneaking past sentries in the desert or wading through the Rio Grande (not that such acts are equivalent to burglary either). Most immigrants are attempting to come through international points of entry and ask for asylum. This is permitted under a law Congress passed in 1980, providing that people may seek asylum when they have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion....The United States separately admits refugees from wars and natural disasters."
"Here’s another solution to the immigration problem—welcome more legal immigrants!...more immigration is in our national interest. Even aside from the injection of vitality that immigrants always provide, we are suffering from a serious labor shortage. ...Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell estimates that “The combination of a plunge in net immigration and a surge in deaths during the pandemic probably accounts for about one and a half million missing workers.”...The unemployment rate stands at 3.7 percent, a 50-year low. For every job seeker, there are 1.7 job openings. The worker shortages are particularly acute in construction, farming, health care, and hospitality."
"....The wait for green cards, even for those who’ve been fully vetted, can be insanely long because our needlessly complicated law imposes caps by country of origin. Immigrants from India and China, for example, can wait their entire working lives."
"We are starved for workers. Americans are paying more for food, housing, and other commodities and services due to the severe labor shortage. We have backlogs of already-vetted immigrants, asylum-seekers with credible claims, and refugees who would gratefully (dare I say tearfully) accept jobs and lives in this country if we could only get out of our own way."
"But our politics is poisoned by the demagogues who speak of immigrants as “invaders” and warn of catastrophe if we don’t close our border. Not only are they deceiving their audience, they are coarsening it by inviting them to enjoy the suffering of others. In contrast to the finest traditions of this country, which at its best has been a haven for the persecuted and a friend to the oppressed, they are treating immigrants as enemies. No—worse. Enemies would be entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, which would prohibit what Greg Abbott did on Christmas Eve."
The countries from which these people are coming have been de-democratized for years in the interest of American corporations. Most Americans are blissfully ignorant of this as of just about everything.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times has an article on the website today about the labor shortage, but from a different angle: aging baby boomers. As boomers age out, the labor shortage is exacerbated. From the article:
ReplyDelete"Baby boomers, the huge generation of people born between 1946 and 1964, continued working later in life than previous generations had, providing an unexpected source of workers. Their importance is hard to overstate: The U.S. labor force grew by 9.9 million people between the end of the Great Recession and the start of the pandemic. Nearly 98 percent of that growth — 9.7 million people — came from workers 55 and older.
"Unfortunately, there are reasons to doubt that retirees will serve as a surprise source of job market fuel this time. Boomers were in their 50s and early 60s when the economy began to emerge from the Great Recession. Many weren’t yet ready to retire; others were just about to when the 2008 recession hit, eroding their savings.
"Many decided to delay retirements as the labor market strengthened in the 2010s: They were relatively young, and they often needed the cash.
"When the Great Recession ended in 2009, most baby boomers still had at least a few years left in their careers. Today, most are well into retirement age, and the rest are getting close.
"But key parts of that story have since shifted. The generation has aged, with older boomers now in their 70s and well over half in what would traditionally be considered their retirement years.
"That makes a difference. More than six in 10 people between the ages of 55 and 64 work or look for jobs, but nudge up the age scale even a little and that propensity to work drops drastically. Three in 10 people between the ages of 65 and 69 participate. Between 70 and 74, it is more like two in 10.
"In short, the demographic decks were always stacked for boomers to leave the labor market soon — but the pandemic seems to have nudged people who might otherwise have labored through a few more years over the cusp and into retirement."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/economy/labor-shortage-retirees-boomers.html?campaign_id=29&emc=edit_up_20221227&instance_id=81224&nl=the-upshot®i_id=87407961&segment_id=120936&te=1&user_id=7bba122dbc8acf5289c69a5c9f2867a2
If the numbers of US-born working-age adults isn't sufficient to backfill retiring Boomers, then the options would seem to be: import the workers (via immigration); or outsource the jobs and production overseas. Clearly, the latter is the path of least resistance.
DeleteKind of hard to outsource some jobs overseas. Healthcare, child care, farm work, and food processing are a few. We can outsource microchips and stuff to China, until we get in a hassle with China and they decide to squeeze us a little, or a lot. Path of least resistance can come back to bite us. Maybe we ought to revisit the trans Pacific alliance (of non China Asian countries) that Obama was trying to advance, that Trump shot down.
DeleteOur archdiocese is looking for ways to get parishes involved in caring for the bused-in immigrants, and more generally to help immigrants. I hope our parish decides to get involved.
ReplyDeleteYou hear more about the ones bused from Florida to Martha's Vineyard, or the ones to DC, but I see that Chicago has gotten about 3000. Yes, it would be good if parishes stepped up to help. I imagine your archbishop would be on board with it. Not sure what the long term status of the ones that are bused is. Will they get to stay?
DeleteOmaha has some Afghan refugees they are trying to re-settle. But I hadn't heard that any people were bused in from the border. Probably because we are a red state and the border governors aren't mad at us. Gov. Ricketts made a big deal about sending some state troopers down to the border for basically a photo op.
"Will they get to stay?"
DeleteI think it depends on their immigration status, and in part on their own wishes and life requirements. I assume a plurality or majority of them are asylum seekers. If I'm not mistaken, they would be awaiting an asylum hearing, which could be weeks/months (years?) in the future. I believe they have freedom of movement between now and the date of their hearing, so they could presumably go wherever they want or need to go. If we believe the claims of the red-state border governors that those being bused volunteered for it, then it's possible that at least some of them have relatives or friends in the Chicago area; Chicago has a large Latino population, with hundreds of thousands residing in Chicago and more in the greater metropolitan area.
Regarding what parishes can do: when the buses arrive, the go-to agencies for the archdiocese seem to be Catholic Charities and some other local Catholic agencies. I think parishes are going to need some guidance on how they can best help. Some may be able to assist with short-term, emergency shelter, because they already do this for local homeless populations. Our parish isn't a shelter, but we could provide food from our food pantry. We could also do clothing and furniture drives. We also support a local housing initiative to get and furnish apartments for families and individuals who need a home. That could be useful for this situation, although it's not clear to me how these recent arrivals would be prioritized vs. local families who may already be on a waiting list.
It's also not clear to me how open and accepting the parish would be to immigrants who are perceived to be here illegally (even though asylum seekers wouldn't be classified as illegal, if I'm not mistaken). People often talk about "a parish" as though it is a single-minded organism, but in fact it is a conglomeration of a couple of thousand or more individuals and families with their own shares of life experiences, insights, biases and so on. I expect some parishioners would be more open than others. Here in the 'burbs, we tend to be a pretty law-abiding bunch. If the parish is going to get involved, some initial education from the pulpit probably is going to be required, so parishioners can see that (a) we're following US law, and (b) Catholic teaching, including Pope Francis and Cardinal Cupich, support helping these folks in need.
Supporting a fellow human being in need is required of anyone who claims to be christian whether or not the person in need is in the country legally or not. Anyone who claims to follow Jesus’s teachings in the gospels should be happy to help even if it weren’t Catholic teaching. Fortunately it is. The legal status should be totally irrelevant. Helping those in need is a basic assumption among most atheists! Some churches - heeding Christ - have opened their doors to provide sanctuary for those who are here illegally, who fear for their lives if they are deported.
DeleteThe hypocrisy in American Christianity must make Jesus weep. Somehow I don’t think Joseph waited to apply and be approved for asylum before taking Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
"Supporting a fellow human being in need is required of anyone who claims to be christian whether or not the person in need is in the country legally or not."
DeleteIt would seem to be a pro-life issue; especially when the immigrants have been bused, with inadequate outdoor clothing, to below-freezing climes.
Our parish is pretty generous about helping. I expect it would be about helping these folks, too. As I mentioned in my previous comment, it would be helpful of someone who knows more about the bus-riders' situations would advise what kind of help is most needed.
According to what I have read, the people on the busses are in the country legally and are waiting for asylum hearings. Some have relatives and friends that they are trying to reach. I don’t object to people being bussed to other cities voluntarily nor do I object to non- border cities being asked to help. I do object to using the asylum seekers as political pawns. The people that were sent to Martha’s Vineyard were lied to - told that housing and jobs had been arranged for them after arrival. Catholic Charities of Washington is among the many community groups, including churches and other religious organizations, that help provide temporary shelter and food to the bus loads of immigrants that have been sent here by Abbot (fine Catholic that he is). According to what I have read, Abbot has sent 8700 to DC in this calendar year. The VPs house is not even visible from the sidewalk where the busses dump them off. This last group was left on the sidewalks without adequate clothing on the coldest Christmas Eve in Washington DC history. Fortunately a group that helps immigrants in Texas contacted a group here that coordinates assistance to the immigrants- temporary shelter, food, assistance to travel to a family member or friends elsewhere in the country- to tell them of the busses coming so the immigrants weren’t left on the sidewalk to freeze for too long. Since Abbot’s goal is political theatrics dumping the passengers off on the sidewalk near the VOs house is the best he can do since the roads by the White House are pedestrian only. The VPs house is on Massachusetts Ave, in the area called Embassy Row. It is on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory, which is next door to the British Embassy and across the road from the Vatican’s “embassy” - the Papal Nuncio’s house and offices.
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