In the last few weeks, a lot has been happening in the great American conversation around immigration. A federal court struck down SB 1070, Arizona’s “get-tough-on-immigration-because-the-Obama-administration-won’t-do-diddily” law. Several prominent Republicans have started campaigning against the 14th amendment to the United States’ constitution, which, among other things, grants citizenship to any person born in the Unites States. Then, in the second week of August, both the House and Senate passed an emergency spending bill that will send 600 million dollars to the US border. The money will pay for 1500 border enforcement personnel, it will support the overburdened court system, and it will provide for the monitoring of the border by unmanned aircraft.
Count mine among the Americans who wish to see Washington do something about undocumented migration across our southwest border — not because undocumented persons are harming our nation (they’re not; in fact the United States benefits from illegal immigration), but because each year hundreds of good people die trying to cross our borders. People have been migrating across the landscape now bisected with an international border since long before either the United States or Mexico existed, and they’re not going to stop now. The poverty in Mexico is too extreme, and the economic opportunities north of the border are too alluring. Continue reading ‘Immigration Reform: We Can Do Better’
Welcome to my blog! If you’re interested to purchasing my book Neighbor: Christian Encounters with “Illegal” Immigration (and I hope you are), the best way to find the book is through Amazon, or directly from my publisher at a website called “The Thoughtful Christian.”
BREAKING NEWS! I have stated writing for the Huffington Post.
I’m also working on my second book, while promoting my first. Life is full. My first post on the Huffington Post is a blend of themes from my forthcoming book and my book in progress. Check it out:
Because I’ve written a book about immigration, a lot of folks in my family, from my congregation, and among my friends have asked me to weigh in on Arizona’s recently-passed “get tough on immigrants” law. On several occasions I’ve tried to write down my reactions to Arizona’s law, but I’ve had little luck. I have so many thoughts on what has happened in Arizona that whenever I sit down to write about them, all the words get clogged somewhere between my brain and my fingers on the keyboard.
OK. So I know that a lot of people were making a big deal about the fact that Tim Tebow and his mom, Pam, were going to be featured on a pro-life commercial during the Suberbowl. I was less worried by the politics than I was by the fact that the video showed Tim Tebow tackling his mother. I know they were trying to be funny, but domestic violence doesn’t really seem like something about which we should be laughing.
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