Conditions along the U.S. border with Mexico, particularly on the Mexican side where people are being sheltered under the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy, are appalling. The shelters are unsanitary and hot, while refugees are underfed and expected to buy their own basic necessities, but if they leave the shelters they fall prey to drug cartels who kidnap and abuse them.
Churches and other humanitarian groups, including members of a local stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which owns this paper), are working to gather supplies to feed the would-be migrants. Some people risk their lives to bring supplies to the shelters. Pastor Aaron Mendez, director of the Casa del Migrante Amar shelter in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, recently was kidnapped by armed men hoping to extort money. He hasn’t been heard from since.
This is the report from Deseret News reporter Erica Evans, who was sent to the border this week to assess what’s really happening. What she found ought to concern every American who believes in the need to keep families intact, treat people humanely and allow for legitimate asylum claims from people whose lives are in danger in their home countries.
Answers to the problem are as complicated as the problem itself. They involve trying to address the root causes of migration and combating the criminals who prey on vulnerable families. They involve things such as Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s efforts to set up safe third-country asylum shelters in countries such as Guatemala to keep refugees from having to expose themselves to dangers and privations. They also involve a more humanitarian approach from the U.S. government, which must cooperate with Mexico to provide the resources necessary to improve conditions for people waiting at or near the border for their claims to be adjudicated. More resources are needed on the U.S. side to provide shelters and judges who can quickly resolve pending cases.
And finally, they include comprehensive immigration reform legislation born of compromises in Washington. The nation can’t afford to have its immigration policies change with executive orders issued by each new president.
We understand the administration’s concerns about the need to discourage hordes of people from crossing the border into the United States. But as effective as crime-ridden, unsanitary and dangerous conditions might be in bringing this about, such a strategy is neither humanitarian nor does it exemplify the American way.
This nation was built on the hard work and creative energy of immigrants who often came here in desperate search of a better life. Despite constant opposition from a certain percentage of the population, these immigrants have enriched the American culture, strengthened the economy and solidified the nation’s reputation as a beacon of hope. The arguments from the opposition have changed little over hundreds of years, whether it concerns crime or assimilation. But the benefits have not changed over that time, either.
No one seems to know for sure who first said, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members,” but the sentiment is true. When it comes to the United States, a nation that traditionally holds itself as an example of how to protect basic liberties, the statement should be expanded to include the vulnerable and weakest people of all nations who seek to come here for a better life.
Regardless of the politics involved, the nation can and must do better.