Take a Number II

I don’t really like what I wrote last week. It was the piece about immigration called “Take a Number,” and I’m afraid that it might have struck the wrong note. I talked about a job we had done at our house, and described my shame at my own mono-culturalism. One of the men who came to us spoke beautiful English and was deeply at home in the Spanish of his origins. Meanwhile I sputtered to make myself understood and to properly greet the crew that arrived. Not even Google Translate was enough to rescue me.

But the argument I made was a less-than exercise. I said, in essence, that when migrants are deported we will miss their skills, their energy and focus, and their willingness to do the work that other people scorn. My point wasn’t about the people themselves, but the practical value of the tasks they perform.

It’s the kind of argument we might hear from Trump/Sauron for whom worth is a wholly financial calculation. What would induce him to stand with Ukraine? Certainly not the nobility of its cause or the inherent values of freedom and self-determination, but whether it will sign over its mineral wealth. There must be people in the world for whom this makes sense, but they have been emptied of humanity, honor, and high-mindedness. It’s the debasement that has come with Sauron and Co., who are hollowing out our legacy of values.

What I should have done was to disentangle Latino migrants from any of the crucial work they do. Their value is wholly independent of task work and the taxes they pay into the American Treasury. It is rooted in the fact that they are overwhelmingly honest, law-abiding people who honor us with their goodness. They have come to this country for a variety of reasons, including flight from adversity and the prospect of security. Some of them face persecution in the places they were born, and some are drawn by the lure of a nation with enough space and resources to guarantee opportunity. If they have committed a crime, it’s because they crossed a border without causing harm to the communities that have received them. I don’t buy that nonsense about rapists and murderers. Those are the ravings of a hyper-nationalist manipulator.

So let this matter stand on a real foundation. The idea that we should mobilize for mass deportation is an affront to the inherent value of all persons and the God who calls to us from the witness of Torah. The stranger and the wayfarers must be treated like the homeborn, with a full measure of generosity, mercy, and respect.