Bret Calvert

After hearing about the 43 college students massacred in Mexico, I’ve been thinking a lot about the air of contention around immigration. If you’re not aware of the incident I’m referring to, it is horrific. The students were traveling to a town in Mexico, perhaps for a protest of some sort. Allegedly, the mayor of the town was afraid they would disrupt an event his wife was throwing in the city, so he had the students apprehended by corrupt police officers and handed over to a drug cartel…who then massacred the students and burned their bodies. Unbelievably heinous stuff…yet not terribly surprising when you consider the constant atrocities that occur south of the border. Drug cartels and corrupt police have created an atmosphere of poverty and fear and death and misery. The corruption runs so deep throughout the government, it’s hard to imagine how the situation will even start to be resolved.

Which brings me to immigration. Please know ahead of time that I am not suggesting we simply open the borders and let everyone through. That’s ridiculous. More than the nuts and bolts of it…I’ve been thinking about the attitude with which the subject is usually addressed. Specifically…anger. As in, the minutemen and the incredulous tirades against the evil Mexicans who want to come here and take our jobs and soak up our tax money. I’m talking about the elitist, violent, fear-inducing, manufactured rhetoric that is draped over the issue. I’m talking about the people who sit on the border with rifles to “protect our freedom.” I’m talking about laws that allow certain states to stop any brown person at any time and demand to see their papers. I can’t for the life of me understand where all the deep seething anger comes from.

If you ask one of the angry people, they’ll tell you it’s about jobs. That’s bullshit. For all of the hundreds of times I have seen someone on Fox News or GOP fundraiser talk about how they are coming over here to take our jobs…I have never…I repeat NEVER…seen them produce one single person who actually said there was a job that they wanted but couldn’t get because an illegal immigrant took it. Not one. I have never heard anyone say…”I had a great job picking fruit, but then an illegal came and took it.”…or “I got fired from my dishwashing gig because someone came across the border and usurped me.”

Sure, it’s easy for someone trying to get elected to stand in front of the underemployed, point across the border and tell them that the blame for their plight lies over there. It’s a classic way to get elected…that doesn’t make it true.

I can understand how someone without a job can get riled up by that kind of nonsense. A desperate situation might incline them to accept that the reason it’s not going well for them is because of a sneaky, dirty foreigner who made a risky, midnight dash across the border in order to keep the jobless American down. But I am fairly certain that same angry American would turn his unemployed nose up if offered one of the jobs these people do. There is a massive disconnect in that argument and it’s a shame (and a sham) that more people don’t see it.

Meanwhile, the corporations that are funding the GOP mouthpieces who do most of the illegal blaming are also outsourcing their asses off. They are literally paying money to direct the national conversation about immigration towards the taking of our jobs…while simultaneously sending actual, non-propaganda jobs out of the country. Don’t believe me? Check out the owner of Dollar General, whom the voters in Georgia just cursed themselves with.

If you want absolute proof that they are lying to you about the immigrant situation…consider this. For all of the bloviated rhetoric out there that says that President Obama wants these illegals to come and stay…or that he’s soft on the borders…the plain fact is that he has deported more illegal immigrants than any President in history. Ever. Try to wrap your mind around that. The same guy that they are claiming is trying to ruin your life by letting these people easily come to your beloved country…is actually the guy who has overseen sending more of them back than any of his predecessors in the history of said beloved country. The lie/propaganda machine is up and running…and you’re letting it bring anger into your life…for no good reason. (Not that there is EVER a good reason to bring anger into your life. Yoda was pretty clear about that.)

So, the cause may be manufactured…but the anger is real. The people who feel the need to call themselves “real Americans” are so mad about the border. It is the hottest button of issues. Fists are shook, faces are reddened and epithets are hurled whenever it is brought up. We are told it’s something to fear…we are told it will bring the destruction of our very civilization…they will steal our way of life.

…and then, later in the news report, we hear the story about the college students…or a beheading…or a twelve-year-old with a machine gun working for the cartels…or a family disappearing…or any of the myriad of terrible atrocities that happen down there. And this is where I get confused. This is where I cannot reconcile the fact that so many who support the perpetuation of this synthesized anger…also profess to be Christian.

How does one balance that in their brain? How can you spend so much time talking about the healing love of Christ…and so much time believing we need to start gunning down people who are trying to escape such a horrific situation. These people aren’t coming here to try and take our jobs…they are coming here to try and survive! They are literally seeking refuge from one of the most currently dangerous and unimaginably horrible situations on Earth. Yet, there are many who feel the need to demonize them and call for their heads. For the life of me…I can’t think of anything LESS Christian.

Again, I’m not saying we should just open the doors. Rules need to be followed, steps need to be taken and civility must reign. We shouldn’t just let anyone who wants to run across the border free passage…but we should be able to at least try to understand what made them make that run. On a human level, we should be able to have empathy for these people. Put yourself in their shoes…if you lived in a place where it was not uncommon to see a beheaded corpse hanging from a bridge…you might make a run for it, too.

I feel the need to reiterate, I’m not saying we just let everyone come in…but at the very least we need to try and understand why they are trying to…and realize that it is NOT to come take your fucking job.

Christian love would seem to lean towards empathy…and even sympathy…for these people. I’ll never understand why some constantly claim to love The Lord…but hate these people trying to save their own lives. It’s just one in a long line of things about the GOP platform that I can’t understand how a Christian mind can reconcile supporting…this is just the one I’ve been thinking about today.