Of Undocumented Indignity

After seeing Tim James’ inane campaign ad having to do with driver’s tests only being in English in the State of Alabama; and after the passage of Arizona’s draconian immigration law, immigration reform is very much on my mind. It may well be the most important issue facing this country in a long while as the interests of the so-called first and two thirds worlds collide on this Continent…a seismic call to order society in a new way. This crisis has of course been coming for a long time, but now the realities of justice and well being for millions of people are upon us. There is no avoiding making major changes now as to how we live together in a post modern, global community. We will have to yet again stare down social and economic injustice, and their savvy accomplice, racism.

We have been reading in my Ethics class in the diocesan school for deacons, Ismael Garcia’s Dignidad, Ethics through Hispanic Eyes. It caused all kinds of animated conversation. It points out a reality that is hard for us of privilege to see. The term is ‘structural sin’, the notion that for minority populations, especially people of color, that the structure of the dominant society will inevitably disadvantage its poorer and less empowered minority population. There is no single person to blame; it is an anthropological reality that the dominant culture will serve self interest first. Black Americans know this, Hispanic Americans and Latinos know this. It ramifies through our health care system, employment practices, worker justice, school systems, food supply, on and on. As I told the class, it is for the people of faith to work to challenge and change such structures wherever there is the injustice of structural sin.

One student made the statement with regard to immigration, that we just couldn’t open our borders wholesale…that would create all kinds of problems arising from overpopulation. I agreed that the crisis is complex, and that there are no simple solutions, but I suggested that we need a rubric, an overarching guidepost to inform whatever decisions we make concerning our neighbors who wish to live among us…and with deference to Garcia, that guidepost is dignity….as long as we respect the dignity of every human being, then we’ll make real progress….that’s every human being including our neighbors…Imagine the terms “illegal alien” or “undocumented immigrant”…that is like calling a child illegitimate…Because all of us on this planet belong to the human family everyone is entitled to dignity. If that were our modus operandi in this crisis we might truly find creative ways, collaborative and safe and humane ways to resolve the enigmatic quandary we are in. Dignity always serves the common interest, the greater good.

Let it be for us and our human family, Dignidad….Let us see to it…Si, se puede!