It was disheartening to read Richard Fein’s Feb. 25 Gazette column on migration, legal and illegal, to the United States. (“Is legal and limited immigration anti-immigrant?”)
Like President Donald Trump, Fein advocates for a physical wall and zero tolerance for illegal immigration. But do either of these men acknowledge that large numbers of people trying to enter the U.S., including the so called “caravan” from Honduras and El Salvador, are seeking political asylum when they enter the U.S.?
Under U.S. law, any individual has a right to request asylum status regardless of how they enter the country and are entitled to a hearing in the United States. These include families escaping economic impoverishment and war, much of it caused by U.S. policies, and their consequences including gang violence and domestic abuse.
As an academic who has worked in Africa for four decades, I have served as expert witness in asylum cases including men and women seeking refuge from repressive regimes in Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda. The United States offered to these people the promise of safety and a viable future.
Mr. Fein, when you ancestors came to this country did they do it legally or illegally? If they were like my grandparents escaping ethnic pogroms in Eastern Europe, there were no such restrictions or policies in place. While the U.S. has in the past excluded certain ethnic groups including Chinese, Mexicans, Haitians, and Jews, it has mainly been economic necessity that directed our immigration policies.
Major studies have pointed to the net economic gain of undocumented workers in our economy who work incredibly hard at jobs few Americans want, and that crime statistics are much lower among these immigrant populations than or own citizens.
I am not advocating open borders but ask our government to follow our own laws on granting asylum status, including representation and due process. Most importantly, I ask for compassion and goodwill that does not call for separating children from their mothers or creating physical barriers to their entry.
We are a large country whose greatness rests on our diversity, our humanitarianism, and our immigrants.
Elliot Fratkin
Northampton