Immigration Reform Should View Latin American Migrants As Part Of Nature's Bounty
Published June 18, 2013
STAFF EDITORIAL
The GOP Must Recognize Undocumented Latinos As Part Of Our Natural Heritage Like the Grizzly Or The Bald Eagle.
Before we can talk about comprehensive immigration reform, we have to secure our borders.
This is a mantra repeated time and time again by Republican politicians that have provided neither a solid description of what a secure border actually looks like nor an illuminated path toward a system that provides some sort of legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants already living and paying taxes in the U.S.
These right-wing politicians also fail to comprehend the larger picture: what this land looked like before Europeans arrived in the New World and the U.S. expanded from sea to shining sea. If one could go back in time she would see that the land existed unencumbered by walls and fences – and it did just fine, thank you very much.
As well as no walls or fences, animals – such as the magnificent American buffalo – freely migrated across the borders of present day U.S. The enigmatic mountain lion did – and still does – move with great stealth across with imaginary boundary dividing the U.S. from Mexico. Without any doubt, the most impressive animal of all is one we see each and every day in modern America. This wonderful, glorious animal is, of course, the native peoples of Mesoamerica.
In modern day Santa Marino and the larger Los Angeles area, we see these beautiful creatures as men wearing leaf blower packs keeping our sidewalks clean. We see them as industrious marketing executives waiving signs on bustling street corners for income tax services.
Indeed, long before Columbus or Ponce de Leon, native Americans freely waded across the Rio Grande looking for a better life. Trying to stop their continued flow across our make-believe border is a crime against nature. American must stop seeing our Mesoamerican guests as “invaders.” Nay, they represent our bountiful land’s most precious natural resource naturally migrating to better breeding grounds.
Often called “Dreamers,” they are as American as the grizzly bear or the bald eagle. Immigration reform will bestow upon them in an official way what nature always knew they had: a right to exist.
