President Trump says we have an invasion of criminals coming into our country because our border with Mexico is porous. I agree that there is a huge migration of Central Americans fleeing poverty and danger in their own countries, especially, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala into our country. Many are seeking amnesty and apply for it through our federal system whether they entered illegally or through an official U.S. portal. It’s not an invasion, though. There is no armed force attempting to conquer our border. These are mostly families and a lot of young people hoping for a better life here in the U.S.A. It’s a migration of a multitude trying to survive. Some of these immigrants are campesinos, field workers.
Many agricultural communities here in the U.S. would welcome cheap migrant laborers to harvest all those crops that need to be picked by hand including apples, oranges, tomatoes and cucumbers. I’ve heard of farmers who complain that their vegetables and fruits are going to rot in the fields again like they did last year.
I lived on a farm in Michigan for four years and watched as migrant laborers — mostly Mexican — picked blueberries by hand. That area boasts of itself as being the blueberry capital of America. Not one local resident that I knew of signed up to work picking blueberries where you are bent over most of the time from sun-up in the heat of the day until the afternoon. Then you go to the buildings where the fruit is washed and packed by the same laborers. Each day. Every day the migrant laborers work as hard as they can to pick as much fruit as they can so they can make enough to support their families and send a little something back home. No locals on the scene, though.
I had a very angry Mennonite dad tell me to stop saying that their young people won’t pick fruit because pay is low and work is hard. I had been addressing a small group of wonderful people who farm in South Michigan. I think he was angry because he knew that what I said was the truth. He could not point to a single young person out in the fields working with the Latinos. I have a feeling that there’s more to his objection that just my words. I’m certain racism is involved.
This movement of large groups of people seeking a better life will not stop, even as Trump claims that we are full. There’s no more room here in the U.S., he says.
Chicago, an amnesty city, continues to absorb both legal and undocumented immigrants. The mayor has been a leader in standing strong for immigrants. He is the grandson of a Moldovan Jew from Bessarabia. He can see that Chicago is constantly changing, enriched by immigrants.
Our president has no vision of an America that embraces foreigners. Our congressmen and women have provided little leadership in this regard.
Someone has said “Without a vision, the people perish.” Oh, ’tis true, ’tis true