Tear Down This Wall!

When I was 17 years old, I participated in a prison visitation program at the juvenile detention center sponsored by my church in Columbus, Ohio. One day I visited an 11 year old boy named Manuel. Before I stepped into the visitation room I was told that he had been charged with the high crime of vagrancy. Using my rather poor high school Spanish, I soon learned that Manuel was from Mexico City. He had hopped a train in Texas and was trying to join relatives who had jobs as cherry pickers in Michigan. The police had arrested him in the Columbus train depot. They roughed him up pretty good at the police station. He had bruises to prove it. Now Manuel was being held in the detention center until he could be deported. I asked him what his plans were. He answered in English. "I come back!"

On the way home I tried to imagine being that 5th grade boy. What would motivate him to want to work 12 hours a day for less than minimum wage as a fruit picker? What would it be like for me to leave my family and to travel alone in a foreign country where I didn't know the language? What was his crime?

That was my first awakening to the realities of our government’s immigration policy against Latinos. Undocumented foreign workers are called "illegal aliens" and therefore are considered criminals under the law. 36 years have come and gone. I have witnessed the growing intolerance of Americans toward our southern neighbors. For more than 10 years U.S. Marshals and other border guards have been systematically tracking, arresting, beating, shooting and even outright murdering individuals crossing the border in order to send their clear message of intolerance. Yet the flow of undocumented workers has not stopped. When I now see the news coverage of the militarization of the U.S.- Mexican border I remember the boy and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The building of the wall between our two nations is a symbol of the permanent acceptance and institutionalization of racial and ethnic apartheid against foreign born Hispanics by our government.

Instead of sending National Guard troops, with high tech tracking devices and machine guns to try and seal off the border we need a new, more Christian vision rooted in the democratic ideals articulated in the Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Perhaps we could follow the model of the European Economic Union which has brought together a multitude of nations who now have open borders, free trade, freedom of travel, and eligibility for employment anywhere in the union. Instead of depressing the European economy, the provisions of this union have strengthened it and given new life to it. Why not have such an open border union between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico?

It is true that there are a large number of Hispanic workers who are willing to work for low wages and no benefits. This does depress wages and benefits for all American workers. However, in a world where American corporations are outsourcing as much labor, manufacturing and even computer programing as they can to third world countries like Thailand, India, and China there are some economic advantages to be gained by having foreign workers living together with us in this country.

In the words of Ronald Reagan, I say, "Tear down this wall!" Why not also let the words of the Apostle Paul be our guide toward amnesty for all undocumented workers. He wrote "So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens together with the saints and members of the household of God.” (Eph. 2:19). If we assume that the world, and more particularly the United States of America is the household of God, why not put our faith in the ethical principle that if we expand freedom and democracy, the blessing of prosperity for all will follow?

Dr. Greene is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and a resident of Richmond, IN. He is also the author of Benjamin's Dog Joseph, Feeling Better: The Wisdom of the Doc, You Can Feel Better: How to cope with chronic pain and physical disabilities, and co-author of Walking Free: the Nellie Zimmerman Story.

For further information about his books, please visit www.densmorereid.com

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