Border Crisis

Any good human being deserves a future and a place to raise that future right? Shouldn’t they deserve to come to, for instance, the United States and begin a new life with better equality and justice? These questions are just a few of many that the country is asking about our current immigration issue. Before I begin this blog, I want to make it clear that this isn’t intended to many anyone feel bad or to offend anyone in any way. That's not my goal here; my goal is to show an opinion with the least amount of bias possible without causing any issues. I even speak Spanish and have many wonderful latino/Spanish friends who’ve treated me as if I was a latino myself. I’m not trying to be politically correct but I am trying to get people to not fight about this and sit down to talk about how we can make our immigration system better for all.

Immigration is one of the hottest topics within the United States of America, especially with the rise of gangs like MS-13 and the recent “separations” of families at the southern border. For a long time I wanted to stay away from this topic but I saw a clip of Judge Jeanine Pirro, a political activist, and Whoopi Goldberg on the View literally screaming at each other over the issue of immigration. Whoopi reportedly cursed Jeanine out when Jeanine questioned her on her constant hate on the President. I also read an article from Courier-Journal that was titled “If immigrants were white and Christian, our system wouldn't be broken”. That's when I felt the need to speak up. Let's start with the accusations of the separation of families. 

These past few months many people have accused border agents/police of separating families of children from their parents, who are illegal. Videos can be seen of children in cages or in buildings laying around, sobbing. I’ve seen this myself and it’s not an enjoyable site to see. Besides the horrific videos of young children crying, a photo of a young Honduran girl crying at the border has surfaced and spread like wildfire across all media outlets. TIME magazine even had a cover of the President photoshopped standing over this crying little girl with the caption “Welcome to America” across the front page. I was particularly outraged by this photo as it doesn’t represent what actually happened with this little girl. Reports from Fox News, The Daily Wire, and Washington Post indicate that this girl wasn’t being separated by ICE. In fact, the girls' father even said she wasn’t being separated, her mother Sandra Sanchez simply set her down so border patrol agents could search the mother before crossing. The father was also reportedly upset that his wife didn’t tell her they left and wanted them to go back to Honduras. A few days after that photo on TIME magazine was released, President Trump signed an executive order that ended any form of separation of families at the southern border. 

Besides the separation of families at the border, issues with the vicious gang MS-13 have become a huge part of Trump's campaign about immigration. MS-13 is a vicious gang from El Salvador that has terrorized immigrants and US citizens alike in the past few years. I’ve compared them to ISIS many times but MS-13 hardly has an ideology unlike ISIS but I’m not supporting either group. Their ideology is this: Kill, Rape, Fear. MS-13 has killed several people in the United States such as 15-year-old Damaris Alexandra Reyes Rivas, who was murder in 2017 by a female 17-year-old  MS-13 sympathizer. Venus Romero Iraheta who committed this horrific murder said,”I left the knife in her neck.” In a police video of her interrogation, Romero’s Interrogators asked if the murder bothered her. She simply shook her head. That's what immigrants and many citizens have to deal with. A group that simply has no morals, no compassion, and cares nothing about human life. Yet when the President vows to stop them at all costs, he’s criticized left and right.  

So here's my final take on immigration: I believe anyone is able to come here to find a better life and seek more opportunities to live out their dreams. The United States was founded through immigrants who sought the exact same things that many nowadays do. However, like all countries, the United States has laws and no one is above the law. Which means these laws need to be enforced to prevent groups like MS-13 from terrorizing innocent people. I sincerely hope no more families will be separated but please remember that many families in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq have been separated, but unfortunately forever. The same goes for people in Latin America. Yes, the immigration process can be long and grueling but if thousands of other immigrants from other continents do it, so should you. I personally think the system needs some major changes to it and everyone on the left, right and middle can come together to figure out how we can help people become legal citizens of the United States. And please, just because I am white and Christian doesn’t mean jack squat. All of my ancestors were immigrants so don’t pull that card on me.