I was aghast to hear the news about the migrant crisis today. America. Tear gas was fired at the migrants who attempted to gain entry into this country through the Southern border. According to Politico, "Children screamed and coughed in the mayhem of the tear gas" (AP, 2018). This is the culmination of our current administration's fear-mongering against the so-called "caravan" of migrants seeking to migrate peacefully and seek asylum, legally, in America.
Once upon a time, our nation welcomed refugees, migrants, and immigrants who came for a better life to the most powerful country in the world. America is certainly not lacking in its flaws, but one of its saving graces has been its openness to new immigrants, and henceforth, other cultures that seem foreign. This isn't esoteric or a new idea, this has been promulgated by thought-leaders in this country since the inception of this country. What makes the city that I reside in, New York, the greatest city in the world is its capacity as the "melting pot".
What is most deleterious to our country are not the immigrants who come here, many of whom are fleeing conflicts caused by our foreign policy, despite what Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity may tell you. What is most deleterious to our country is not even the people who adorn "MAGA" hats and desire a return to the mythic "great" America that never truly existed. Nor is it a false sense of "bipartisanship" that views both sides as equally unworthy, and creates a false dichotomy. What lies at the heart of this issue is the loss of the American soul.
What lies at the soul was the didactic between the existential threat of the ego and the virtue of empathy. Caring for one and another, over and on par with yourself. This has been lost, destroyed, vanished without a trace. Embracing spirituality also has been lost. I don't mean religion, as I'm an atheist myself, but I mean connecting to the idea and absurdity of being and recognizing your futile place in this grand world. "America" is not at the center of history, despite its prominent and powerful position, but rather is just a mere part, a cog in the machine, merely a piece of land that we tell a story about. Connecting to a "higher power", whether a "God" or merely an appreciation for grandeur, leads us to gain a greater understanding of this world, and our minuscule place in it. Regardless of the approach, we can adopt a greater sense of empathy using spirituality. We can recognize ourselves as God's creatures, and thereby equally entitled to justice, or connecting to beings who are just as deserving of "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", as you are.
I also recognize that one may have reasonable objections to immigration, and I want to lay out a strong argument from reason in regards to immigration. I want to make one final argument that Joseph Carens makes. John Rawls makes a case for considering justice through a "veil of ignorance", in his seminal work A Theory of Justice (1971). In the book, Rawls lays out a position that asks one to remove himself from society and imagine him/herself behind a "veil of ignorance". Rawls labels this the Original Position. In the Original Position, one knows that he will be incepted back into society, but does not know what race, class, abilities, or gender he/she will possess. Rawls draws two positions that he believes we will "reasonably" all concur on. The first principle that Rawls posits that we will agree on is that all should be granted basic liberties. The second principle is that any inequalities should go to benefit the least well-off members in society. Carens points out that we ought to extend these basic liberties and ideas about inequality to immigration. After all, one does not have the foreboding knowledge as to which society he/she will be born into and if he/she may desire or be forced to make the heart-wrenching decision to leave his/her family. Citizenship, like the characteristics listed above, is morally arbitrary, yet we place a great deal on it in the modern world. According to Carens, "the basic agreement among those in the original position would be to permit no restrictions on migration". Henceforth, the position that we ought to inchoate upon would be having no restrictions on immigration. Carens states that we could make some restrictions if the public order is at risk. Yet, there are fewer immigrants proportionally who are on welfare, and fewer who are incarcerated. Generally, the population is known to be hard-working and willing to do jobs that Americans would rather not do.
Going beyond a liberal conception of justice, I do believe it's imperative that one must always be questioning power and its often arbitrary nature. We are lucky to have grown up in the most powerful nation of the world, and much of you who will be reading this are even luckier to belong to the privileged class. Of course, the true "illegal immigrants" are the ones that came here hundreds of years ago and slaughtered Native Americans. Henceforth, I would ask those to consider your history and your place in society before making incendiary claims about immigrants. I understand that I the privileged northerner, may not be able to relate to Southerners or those in the Mid-West who may take a different position than I do. I simply ask of my brethren no more than what I ask of myself when I see the downtrodden: as hard as it may be to deny the ego, to sink back into tribalism, I ask for an openness to new experience, to a new culture, and a willingness to cultivate empathy. I am not saying you have to concur with my view on immigration, but what I am saying is that if you do not respect the downtrodden, it will be hard for me to garner respect for you.
