We could help immigrants instead of hurting them, and still be happy

Punishment doesn't solve any problems. Helping people in need solves more problems than punishment never solved.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

So I’ve noticed a change in my feeds on X. The White House and various department heads are showing up to plead their case. They must be really worried that a punishing economy is going to flip the House and the Senate. I’m not worried about that. I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going to happen. And immigrants will still get the boot.

One topic that is missing from the debate on immigration is this: it takes brains and hands to run a country. If you boot them out, you have fewer brains to run the country and do the work. Those people who came here from there, didn’t want to come here. They loved their home. But America is a homewrecker.

America is responsible for more than 80 coups over the last 100 years. Many of them were in countries in our “backyard”, South America. All of them were imposed on other countries under the Monroe Doctrine and other ridiculous theories of global management that say America should run the greatest show on earth, forever.

I recall reading a few years ago that 67% of American counties reported a net decline in population. The birthrate in America is 1.70 births per mother, far, far below the replacement rate. The population in America is in decline without immigration, and so far, nobody in power seems to be doing anything about it.

So when I see yet another video of ICE abusing people, I see a culture of governance steeped in behavior modification. I see men with masks and guns inflicting pain on other people, as if they have a god given right to inflict that pain. I see in ICE a group of people who are desperate and who have no idea that it’s going to come back to them.

But there is something else. Those people who came here, seeking a better life, I’ve seen them work. They work hard. They see work as a virtue. They see work as a way to get closer to God. They understand that we are made to work, and that’s why they’re willing to do the work that most Americans born here, are not willing to do. And if they can’t do it here, they’ll do it somewhere else.

We can continue to brutalize immigrants who are trying to get through a complicated naturalization process by design. A system designed to wear out only the most determined to get through. We can continue to hurt those people. Or we can help them.

I know what it’s like when I help other people. I’ve seen them light up when I help them. I’ve seen how they remember me long after I’ve helped them. I’ve seen those people in my day job, seek me out because I helped them a few months or a few years ago. I’m not kidding about this. Helping someone out is like gold in humanity because we need it.

Those immigrants coming here, they’ll follow the rules. Study after study shows that immigrants living here are less prone to crime than people who were born here. And those same immigrants will do work that very few of the people living here are willing to do. And if we help them become citizens here, they will remember how they feel about us helping them.

I’ve seen the difference between punishing someone and helping them. It’s like night and day. Behavior I don’t want goes away. Better behavior prevails after help is provided.

If we really want to grow the economy, we help those immigrants who are here, to become citizens. Instead of making them wait 10 or 20 years, get it done in a year or less. Then they get legal work. Then they earn more pay. Then they are even less prone to crime. They want to be like us or they wouldn’t come here.

Cooperation is the foundation of humanity. Every time I see ICE throw someone to the ground, I see them denying humanity. Every time I see a video of ICE hauling a parent away while his child looks on, I see someone with an immense empathy deficit. And when I see, read or hear of MAGA cheering ICE on to be even more brutal, I see more people with an empathy deficit.

Empathy is a skill, just like reading, writing, walking and talking. We learned the skills we have from someone else. That’s how we learn. Everything we know about ourselves, we learned from someone else. Our birthday, our mother, our father, our name, our home, all were learned from someone else.

If we grew up around people who lack the skill of empathy, we don’t learn empathy. If we grew up in violence, we learn violence. If we grew up in a literate home, we learn to read. If we grew up in a civilization, we learn to be civil. ICE isn’t civilized.

Now it is apparent that some Republicans are worried about backlash from the heavy handed, Bill of Rights violating ICE tactics. And they would be right to worry about that backlash. The polls do not look good for next year for anyone MAGA in Congress. They may have safe seats, but safe seats chill debate.

I believe that if we stopped enforcing the Monroe Doctrine in North and South America, those people would have stayed put in their own countries to make their own countries better. Witness all the pain we’re about to inflict on Venezuela. Witness the debt trap we’ve laid for Mr. Javier “Free Market” Milei in Argentina.

Those people can feel it. They know that America will not permit them the right of self determination. Whatever they do must be approved by America First. Whatever they do must involve the dollar, and must give America priority access to their natural resources.

And if those people living down there, south of the border, do not feel they have a right to self determination, they may feel compelled to come here to reclaim and assert that right. America does not have clean hands in this immigration drama. Every immigrant in America has some mark from American forces in other countries, messing with their right of self determination.

And when we boot them out of America, we are telling immigrants who didn’t really want to come here in the first place, no, you don’t have the right of self determination.

I believe that if we help immigrants by giving them a clean and simple path to citizenship, they will be more than grateful. They will only work harder. And they will know their rights enough to demand a fair, prevailing wage. They will feel like they belong and they will make our nation stronger for our generosity.

I’m told that we can’t afford immigrants in America. They’re taking up living spaces that raise the cost of housing, food, and gas. Never mind how BlackRock is buying up single family homes to rent them out, just talk about immigrants and deflect the blame.

I’ve never seen a straight figure of the number of “illegal immigrants”. One day it’s 11 million. Another day it’s 22 million. I don’t think they know for sure, just like they don’t know for sure someone is a citizen before they deport him.

If you want peace, you must be peaceful. if you want peace, you must not be violent or criminal in your behavior. Nothing that ICE is doing right now will bring us any peace. Everything they are doing now will only be reflected back onto them and the people who support them.

It’ll come back to them. It always comes back.

Write on.