Immigration: Coming Face to Face with Ourselves

The public debate on the matter, sometimes bitter, exposes the moral wear and tear of our nation.  Faced with the danger of terrorism, freedom “just doesn´t seem to be all that it cracked up to be.”  Confronted with a human wave that has come here without permission, the Price of being the kind of nation we want to be may have become too expensive, overflowing the patience of the people and the viability of our social safety net.  The “invasion” of people whose appearance, conduct and culture inspires the mistrust of many of us, combined with their offense of having violated our civic space, awakens latent racist feelings which are easily manipulated to feed political ambitions.

Ad to this the collective guild that we all share for permitting and postponing facing this massive irrgularity.  The political system, as well as the economic and the social sytems have contributed significantly to the phenomenon of a human mass of undocumented immigrants, making us all both accomplices and judges of the situation.

The number of the undocumented now in the country is consistently estimated around 12 million.  This amounts to 4% of the nation´s population, that is, one of every 25 people does not have the necessary papers to live and work here.  But such a huge mass of people would never have been able to establish themselves, find work, housing and minimal services, without the active or tacit complicity of that segment of the population which employs them, sell them services and lives alongside them.   

However, when we try to decide what to do with all this population that lives in a legal penumbra, the majority of Americans and legal residents ignore our own responsibility, personal or collective, for having contributed or created the problem in the first place.

A law that almost everyone ignores is a bad law: it does not serve the social purposes that all laws must serve.  The immigration laws of the United States have not been implemented because they don’t serve well the national interest.   That is why there has not been the political will or the social consensus needed to apply them consistently.  For decades government policies have been ambivalent regarding the immigrants and this has created the conditions so that a great mass  of them have entered or stayed without the proper papers.

To be “a nation of immigrants” is an important part of the national myth of the United States. I say “myth” not because it is false, but because it embodies certain values with which the national conscience resonates profoundly. 

We believe that we are a noble, generous and solidarious nation, which receives with open arms the poor, the humble, the helpless. 

We believe that we are a country that holds that liberty is an unalienable right, in which all men equally possess an august dignity.   

And we are convinced that we are a land of opportunities, which offers those who are willing to work for them, the infinite possibilities of the “American dream.”

To be “a nation of immigrants” reinforces that national myth that anyone can become part of America, and enjoy our liberty and prosperity if they adapt, integrate and unite with us in our national experiment.  But, to maintain the “American dream” requires a civic virtue of sobriety, integrity and self-control that we Americans and legal immigrants today have sold for a plate of lentils. Thus, the cost of remaining free might exceed our capacity to administer our freedom.