Americans are very well aware that the immigrant issue is a hot topic, often in our recent history a point of contention among Americans, immigrants, and undocumented workers.  There are pros and cons to both sides of the issue and so far there has been resolution.  Some claim that the wall being constructed between the United States and Mexico is one way of resolving the issue.  I’m not one who believes that, but the wall is another debate in itself.

A month ago undocumented workers were picked up and herded into vans by government agents at the local Pilgrim’s Pride plant.  Perhaps, Pilgrim’s Pride should not have hired them in the first place.  But, they did.  It was reported that some of the workers had paid for social security cards to use for documentation.  Whatever the situation, we can all agree that the almost 100 workers were undocumented or fraudulently documented and that they had been hired by the chicken processing company.

Many of these workers have children who are American citizens, born right here in Tennessee or Georgia.  That’s where the rub comes.  The government employees handcuffed the workers, loaded them onto vans and herded them off to be booked and in some cases deported. 

Of course, the raid was a surprise to the company as well as the undocumented workers.  And, as usual, there was no concern for anything other than capturing the workers and “taking them in.”  Many of these people had been working in the U.S. for years.  Some of their American citizen children were already of school age, so that is evidence enough that the undocumented aliens had been in the country from some period of time.

The disgrace of the entire episode was not so much the arrest and detention of the undocumented workers, but the fact that the children were left behind.  Imagine an elementary school age child coming home to no parents.  Reports were that some children sat on the porch waiting for their parents to come home… sat there until neighbors became concerned enough to take the children into their homes.  As the evening progressed, the parents never returned.  I encourage every parent to think of his or her own children coming home expecting to be greeted by parents, yet finding the house locked, no way to get in, waiting alone until fear sets in, only to be carted off to a neighbor’s house with no explanation of the parents whereabouts.

Before nightfall, several community based groups had sought out these children and provided housing for them until the parents could be located.  Granted, the parents are not citizens, but the children are.  There is talk of sending the parents back to their native countries.  But, what about the children?  We cannot deport American citizens to some foreign land.  So, what is the solution?  Separate families, sending parents back to Mexico, Guatemala, or Colombia, and keeping the children here in the U.S.?

I will be the first to concede that perhaps we, as a nation, should do a better job of documenting those who enter and exit across our borders.  We have been a miserable failure at this for decades.  People from every country come into America and dissolve into the population unaccounted for once they are on U.S. soil.  I also realize that many undocumented people enter the country each day, crossing the borders under the cover of darkness.  A wall isn’t going to stop that.  Economic development in their native countries will slow it down.

But, everyone wants to live the “American dream.”  There will always be people coming to America, legally or illegally.  We have sold the idea to the world.  What we need to do now is to concentrate on economic development to provide jobs for Americans and for those immigrants who are here, documented or not.

Call it amnesty if you like, we need to find a way to document those human beings who are in the country, trying to work and raise a family.  Whether the decision is made to allow these people temporary work visas and put them on a path to citizenship with future payments of fines or without, it is time that the U.S. resolve the issue as quickly as possible.  Amid all the rhetoric it seems that we have forgotten that these undocumented workers and so-called “illegal” immigrants are humans.  They are not statistics.  They live and breathe like you and me.  They have feelings.  And, for the most part they are willing to work and contribute to our country, if only given the opportunity.

Think of the decision that was made to cross the border, to walk across the desert, to risk being shot, or to risk dying in some unventilated truck… all to get to the land of plenty.  We should stop working against ourselves and those who have risked everything to come here.  We must begin to work together to get those who are already in the country documented, for their benefit and for our national security.  We must begin to understand in our hearts that it is wrong to send parents back to their native countries when their children are American citizens.

America is better than what we have shown on this issue.  We rush off to save people around the world who are in distress, yet we turn our backs on those who have risked their lives to get here.  We separate families who love one another as much as you and I love our families.  It is time to bring the immigrant issue to a workable conclusion that will benefit all the people and we can if we so choose.

And, by the way, to paraphrase President Reagan, “Mr. Bush, tear down that wall.”