Does the U.S. deserve the Statue of Liberty? Not anymore, one French politician says.
This is one of those extremely complicated issues that you can't just "policy" or “police” away. A political talking point won't nearly address the complexity of the relationship between America's gang culture, immigration, crime, foreign and domestic policies, drugs, and our borders.
First things first… terminology. We aren’t talking about a problem. We are talking about issues regarding people’s lives.
The reality is that the issue is not exclusively about gangs as some might suggest. It is more so about human beings wanting what they have only dreamed about and heard of… the so-called American dream. Is it a crime to want freedom for your family? Is it wrong to seek a place where you can find new opportunities? What parent would not want their children to grow up in safe neighborhoods… or, safer than what they have been accustomed to in their homeland?
In fact, I would argue that may have been part of the motivation for the Europeans to immigrate to North America. My ancestor, Thomas Davenport, arrived on this continent in the late 1630’s.
People wanting to migrate to the United States is not the issue. If you really want the inconvenient truth… the real problem is that so many on the right want you to believe that people wanting to come to the United States is a problem.
When you flash a gold card in the face of some immigrants and not others, offering to in effect sell them a pathway to citizenship if they can afford to buy the card, that action clearly demonstrates the agenda behind the action. It is also demonstrative of what the real problem is… hatred.
The vast majority of the people who attempt to immigrate to the United States do so because they're fleeing extreme violence and crime in their own nations. So, that's another of those complexities that politicians fail to address or even talk about .. how do we address the problems that are resulting in the large numbers of people seeking asylum in America?
We can't ignore the problems behind these people by simply implementing policies in front of them that inhibit their ability to enter the United States. To be clear, what these people... men, women, and children... are fleeing is much worse than the dangers they face just to get to the border. Then, they face the unknown, depending upon the administration in power.
Mass deportations only exacerbates the problem. Besides the obvious taint upon the reputation of a nation that was once a shining beacon of hope to the world, mass arrests and unwarranted deportations only tarnish the face of America.
The plaque on the base of the Statue of Liberty features Emma Lazarus's sonnet, "The New Colossus," which was written in 1883. The plaque, displayed inside the pedestal, carries the sonnet's famous words: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!".
It's especially troubling that a French politician has now publicly suggested that the United States should return the Statue of Liberty to France. This proposal, made by Raphaël Glucksmann at a rally, was a symbolic statement criticizing the US's perceived stance on certain issues, particularly concerning President Trump's policies. Glucksmann argued that the US no longer embodies the values of freedom that the Statue of Liberty represents and I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. The US has rejected this suggestion, with the White House stating that the US is "very grateful" to France for the statue. Creating an atmosphere of hatred toward one race or one culture doesn’t begin to address the plethora of issues. If there is a crisis, it is a crisis of our own making because we have failed to see and understand the bigger picture.
Then of course, is the matter of the United States Constitution.
Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The irony about this section of the Constitution is that it flies in the face of those who seek to end so-called birthright citizenship. Why? Unless you are a member of one of the tribes which are indigenous to North America, you and/or your ancestors migrated here in some manner or another whether it was voluntarily or by force.
So, where do we start to fix this fixable issue? First things first... make DACA the law of the land. Creating comprehensive pathways to citizenship is a matter of fairness and human dignity. People's lives should never be a political talking point! It allows immigrants to gain security and stability, freeing them from the fear of deportation, family separation, or the inability to fully participate in society. Congress must pass this important legislation and the president must sign it into law. Secondly, create a humane process for addressing the needs of the people crossing our borders. That policy should include a means to ferret out bad actors if there are any, without violating anyone's civil rights. Just because they're not Americans doesn't mean they don't have the same civil or human rights as anyone else. Create pathways to citizenship.
The Department of State, CIA, Homeland Security, FBI, and ICE should work together with their counterparts in the nations from which the immigrants are fleeing to address the problems which are the causation of the large numbers of its citizens needing to flee. It's not a problem composed of a singular issue but a singular issue with a plethora of complex entanglements.
The policies of the current administration are doing nothing to fix any issue but rather, it has engendered the complex problems we now face.