News outlets went into a frenzy over gangs of illegal Venezuelan immigrants allegedly taking over, as Fox News put it, “the quiet town of Aurora, Colorado,” with CNN simultaneously reporting that virtually nothing happened.
Left-wing media pretended it wasn’t real. Right-wing media exaggerated what happened.
I live in Denver. First things first. Aurora isn’t a quiet little town. It’s the second-largest city in Colorado.
But I digress.
Prior to Donald J. Trump Senior’s (R-Florida) campaign to build a wall on the Mexican border. Democrats and Republicans alike opposed the bizarre notion that we should have open borders so that millions could flood the U.S. whenever they wanted.
Prior to Trump’s first run for president, while they differed on details, Republicans and Democrats both supported immigration that helped and valued new immigrants.
A few months into his presidency in 1981, Ronald Reagan (R-California) issued a “Statement on United States Immigration and Refugee Policy” in which he vowed to continue America’s tradition of welcoming people from other countries, especially those fleeing oppression.
Reagan advocated for the millions of undocumented “illegal immigrants” present in the country to be given recognition and a path to legal status, all while insisting we not encourage more illegal immigration.
Reagan balanced the compassion we need to show to oppressed people seeking refuge in America and the need to treat people here as humans with the commonsense policy that we ought not have porous borders without rules.
President Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas) was clear that “we are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws,” when he likewise advocated for securing our borders and deporting undocumented immigrants who break our laws.
Courtesy of YouTube
President George W. Bush (R-Texas) believed that American could “simultaneously be a lawful, economically dynamic, and welcoming society.”
And our most compassionate president of all, President Barack Obama (D-Illinois), took executive action when Congress wouldn’t act to try to fix the immigration system so it would adhere to laws and hold people accountable and honor our heritage as a nation of immigrants.
Courtesy: YouTube
So what changed over the past eight years?
Trump jumbled policy with racism.
We’ve all heard his xenophobic comments about “illegal immigrants” the past eight years.
But it’s false that most undocumented immigrants are rapists. It’s a lie that most undocumented workers were people released from South American prisons or mental institutions. It’s false that millions of immigrants are coming here to eat your cats and dogs. Or steal all of your jobs.
These are all vicious, racist lies told solely about brown immigrants to stoke fear and racism among Americans. To pit humans against each other.
I’m not a border or security expert (as are none of my Republican friends), so I don’t know if a wall is part of the answer to illegal immigration or if it’s even logistically possible, but security fences and walls aren’t offensive. They are built and work all over the world. Border patrols aren’t offensive. Secure borders aren’t racist.
A call to build a wall isn’t by itself bad.
Nobody — Black, Brown or white — favors people committing crimes. Not American criminals and not undocumented criminals.
The truth is there are indeed problems with Venezuelan gangs in Colorado and other places. There are criminal enterprises operated by a small minority of recent immigrants in multiple cities. Our security apparatus has identified multiple jihadist terrorists who have snuck through the border as well. Up thousands of percent in the last several years.
Our cities’ human services are being overwhelmed with undocumented immigrants, all while they struggle to meet the needs of American citizens. We have people living in sleeping bags in Chicago’s O’Hare airport; that’s how obvious it is we can’t handle unlimited waves of undocumented immigrants.
None of that is OK.
But this isn’t rocket science.
We can secure our borders and maintain a vibrant legal immigration process without resorting to the dehumanization of our brown brothers and sisters.
We can enforce our laws without scaring Americans about immigrants. We can act out of kindness to people just seeking a better life — and at the same time not leave our own citizens in the lurch.
Smart immigration policy shouldn’t be laced with racism and hatred. Nor should we have anyone in charge of those policies who is motivated by those evils.
If you’re worried about rape and criminal activity, there are plenty of American citizens to focus on.
Let’s get back to bipartisan efforts to secure our borders and still remain a nation that acts compassionately toward people dreaming of a better life here.
Racist theories aside, robust immigration leads to more innovation, a better workforce, more specialization, more skillsets, and increased economic productivity. Immigration has over time actually had a net positive impact on federal, state and local budgets.
Despite our nation’s many struggles, there’s a reason people all of over the world still want to come to America.
Let’s not ruin that.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of Jeffrey Kass' work on Medium.