As I have previously stated, there is no value in commenting on any words coming out of the Trump administration. Trump himself is ignorant, dishonest and immoral. His administration, i.e., his vice-president and his appointments, judging by their past actions compared to their recent comments, are no better. So this space will, for now, concentrate solely on Trump actions.
Trump has already started to act on immigration. His actions are either wasteful (e.g., a wall that will cost billions of dollars and won’t work as well as much cheaper solutions) or hideously anti-American (e.g., excluding people on religious bases or breaking up families).
So what should be done? Let us take one example. There are families, primarily of Hispanic origin, who came to this country illegally. They got jobs, raised families, paid taxes, contributed to a Social Security system from which they could never get benefits, and generally lived good lives. Their children are either American citizens by birth or de facto Americans because they came as infants and have never known anything except life in the United States.
Before anything happens to those families, we should take into consideration that we were complicit in allowing these people to come and to stay and to prosper here. Employers gave them jobs with full knowledge of their status. People sold them houses with full knowledge of their status. Whole industries depended on them with full knowledge of their status. I say “full knowledge” because any employer who claims that he or she hired a person who spoke no English and had no documentation but didn’t know that person was not a citizen is just plain lying.
It is clear that this country needs an immigration policy. However, that policy should not work injustice. In a very real sense, we brought these people here. We owe it to them,and to our own commitment to justice, to give them a chance to stay.
We The Center 