Immigration Reform: Who is our Neighbor?

When I attended church July 14, one of the readings was the story of the Good Samaritan. Although most people are familiar with the concept of being a good Samaritan, due in part to laws requiring us to stop and render aid at the scene of an accident, some may not be familiar with the beginning of the story. In it, a lawyer asks Jesus a question about Jewish law and what it requires for him to inherit “eternal life.”

When Jesus avoids this verbal trap by answering that he must love God and his neighbor, the lawyer continues with the question, “And who is my neighbor?”

That question got me thinking about the current discussion around immigration reform.

Many people I know get hung up on the idea that immigrants arrive “illegally,” without considering how cumbersome and unresponsive our immigration system is. They use this cheap and easy distinction to ignore the difficult conditions many immigrants flee. It also allows them to separate immigration from other policy issues, such as trade and foreign relations, which help create the conditions driving immigrants to our country. Like so many things, it’s complicated.

I’m sure many Americans experience the fear fed by current events and media talking heads – fear of changing demographics and terrorist acts. Unfortunately these emotions prevent them from seeing the clear benefits of immigration throughout our history.

For example, as retired American diplomat and associate director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Duke University, Stephen R. Kelly, wrote in the New York Times last week, Americans benefitted from our open northern border and the hard work of immigrants throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. During these years, nearly a million French Canadians flooded across the border to take jobs in textile and shoe mills in New England.

As a result, these industries boomed. Many immigrants stayed and assimilated, some serving in our military during the world wars. We experience similar benefits today; in Iowa, we have communities already revitalized by immigrant populations.

In fact, as the Congressional Budget Office reported on July 3, in a letter reviewing the immigration bill passed by the Senate: “CBO and JCT estimate that enacting S. 744, as passed by the Senate, would generate changes in direct spending and revenues that would decrease federal budget deficits by $158 billion over the 2014-2023 period.” Additionally, they noted: “For the Senate-passed version of S. 744, CBO and JCT estimate that changes in direct spending and revenues would decrease federal budget deficits by about $685 billion (or 0.2 percent of gross domestic product) over the 2024-2033 period.”

Kelly concludes: “What the French Canadian experience shows is that our current obsession with border security is inconsistent with our history, undermines our economic vitality and is likely to fail. Instead of vainly trying to fortify our land borders, we should be working with Canada and Mexico to keep the things we should really worry about — terrorists, weapons of mass destruction, cocaine — out of North America all together.”

Because on this tiny blue marble floating in space, the reality is we’re all neighbors.