Op-Ed
¡Feliz Navidad!
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If You Can Keep It
November 30, 2006 - 1:00amThe Three Wise Men of the Christmas story and I have at least one thing in common: the star is an object near and dear to all our hearts.
For them, one star in particular was of paramount importance — the Star of Bethlehem, the much-popularized Christmas Star that, according to the Bible, revealed the birth of Jesus to the world and led the celebrated Tres Reyes Magos to the place where they could find the newborn King and shower Him with gifts.
Come December every year, I also pack up the frankincense and follow a star, though my star — unlike the one just mentioned — takes me back home rather than on a biblical journey across faraway lands. I speak, of course, of the Lone Star, the guiding light that shows every Texan the way home when the holiday season comes callin’.
This year is no different, and I am counting down the days until my return to the land of tasty Tex-Mex, sweet southern belles and the still great George Strait with increasing impatience.
Winter Break is, for everyone, a time to take a furlough from college life, to “rest” — in quotation marks because, for the majority of Cornellians, it is an obscure, foreign word — and, most importantly, to catch up with friends and family.
I look forward to doing all three, especially the last on the list — which brings me to my next point.
“¡Pobre Mexico!” Mexican President Porfirio Díaz once lamented. “¡Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!”
(“Poor Mexico,” that is — “so far from God and so close to the United States!”)
The obvious gibe aside, el Presidente sure got one thing right — Mexico is indeed “so close” to the United States and to my home state in particular. It follows, then, that this is reflected in my friend base, as many of the people I’m lucky enough to call my amigos are either from south of the border or have parents who came north before they were born.
Now. Here comes a common caveat: not all of my friends — or their parents — are in the United States legally.
And thus we arrive at a topic about which every politician in Washington and pundit on TV has (at least) two cents to add. In general, the situation is such that the line about opinions that Charles Durning’s character delivers to his daughter in the movie “Home for the Holidays” rings far too true — “opinions,” he says, “are like [the breaches in our backsides], honey — everyone’s got one, and everyone thinks everyone else’s stinks.”
Not even the Southern Baptist bowdlerization (apologies, Dear Reader) can detract from just how much that statement nails it.
On the right, activists stand guard at the Rio Grande, clamoring for the government to seek out and deport every undocumented immigrant in the country; on the left, activists march down the street with Mexican flags and signs declaring that “no human being is illegal,” demanding that the U.S. adopt an open-borders policy with no questions asked.
Late October saw fellow columnist and former President of the Cornell Democrats Mitch Fagen devote an entire piece to describing his take on both camps — in addition to those people who fall somewhere in-between — and each of the many different brands of politics behind the lot of them. His last sentence summed things up nicely: “A little bit of common sense and bipartisanship would do a world of good.”
Until Congress shows proof of agreement on that, however, another point Mitch touched on warrants more consideration than both the politicians and the pundits have been willing to give it. “If Mexico’s economy [were] creating good jobs,” he wrote, “people would not want to leave” — obvious, right?
Yep. But we sure haven’t done much about it.
Rather than trying to stem illegal immigration at its source, our policymakers have instead devoted their time, in large part, to battling its symptoms. Talk about what to do with those who have already crossed the border illegally, while important, does little to help solve the problem of such immigration in the long run.
Speaking in South Carolina on Monday, Delaware Senator Joe Biden proved himself to be one of the few politicos who grasp that very simple fact, speaking candidly about the need to shift our focus in the immigration debate from what can be done in America to what can be done about Mexico.
Associated Press writer Jim Davenport quotes the senator in a recent article: “Mexico is a country that is an erstwhile democracy where they have the greatest disparity of wealth. It is one of the wealthiest countries in the hemisphere and because of a corrupt system that exists in Mexico, there is the 1 percent of the population at the top, a very small middle class and the rest is abject poverty.”
Biden’s remarks didn’t end there. “Unless the political dynamics change in Mexico and U.S. employers who hire illegal immigrants are punished,” Davenport adds, paraphrasing the Delaware Democrat, “illegal immigration won't stop.”
Good points all.
But beyond the focus of the debate — beyond even the content of the debate — is a remaining problem that neither Biden nor anyone else has adequately addressed to this point. It is a problem that exists on all sides and only threatens to worsen with time: the rhetorical dehumanization of both those here illegally and those who actively oppose illegal immigration.
In thinking and speaking of the mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and husbands and wives who make unlawful entry into the United States out of desperation for a better life solely in terms as despairingly abstract as “illegals,” we risk forgetting that they, like any of us, are human beings who — no matter their legal status — deserve to be treated in accordance with the Golden Rule.
The same goes for those who, out of concern for their country and respect for the law, may oppose amnesty or an open-borders policy and risk being labeled as racists or bigots because of it.
There is, to be sure, no more appropriate time than the most wonderful time of the year to consider how we can all better embody the teachings of the Reason for the Season — even where politics is concerned.
Mark Coombs is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at mpc39@cornell.edu. If You Can Keep It appears Thursdays.