New York Times (Editorial)
February 17, 2016
Pope
Francis’ trip to Mexico ended on Wednesday in Ciudad Juárez, a city
once made hellish by drug violence and still gripped by poverty and
crime. He did not seem afraid,
and brought with him only smiles and hugs, and words of solace and
encouragement.
He
visited a prison, greeting inmates one by one, urging them to live as
“prophets,” to turn their suffering toward goodness. “Work,” he said,
“so that this society which
uses people and discards them will not go on claiming victims.”
He
prayed at the border for the migrant dead, and condemned the “grave
injustices” done to those who are forced by poverty and violence to
journey north.
If
only that message of decency, of human worth, could have been
amplified, in English, to the United States, across the river to Texas,
and beyond to Washington.
Beyond
them, across the river, was a nation that has frightened itself to the
point of panic about foreigners, with help from Republicans running for
president.
It’s
not just Donald Trump, or Ted Cruz, or the rest who would expel
immigrants by the millions and deny safety to refugees fleeing war in
Syria. So deep is the Republican
fear that a once-feasible campaign for immigration reform now lies
damaged beyond hope and recognition. Even Gov. John Kasich, the
candidate of restraint and civility, who rejects mass deportation, said
in last week’s debate that unauthorized immigrants must
never be given a path to citizenship.
“I
think he doesn’t understand the problems our country has,” Mr. Trump
said of the pope last week, showing a depth of ignorance that is his
trademark. “I don’t think
he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico.”
Pope
Francis understands these problems and dangers, and so do those who
went to see him, many of whose loved ones are dead, memorialized with
crosses in and around Juárez,
or in the desert borderlands. They know those who have left their
homes, who have crossed a barren desert to provide for their families,
or have done so themselves.
It
takes courage to live in Juárez, to face up to dangers there, or to
leave it and cross north to new lives. It takes no courage at all to
demonize immigrants from the
safety of the United States, and to stoke fear, for the sake of votes
and power.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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