I’ve been dissecting Pope Francis’ speech to Congress and have drawn out a few themes that have application to the current events facing our Country.
In his speech, Pope Francis said that we can only be fearful of foreigners when we forget that we ourselves were once foreigners. He spoke about European settlers early encounters with Native Americans, and how those encounters “didn’t always go so well.” Pope Francis wasn’t chastising America for that past, but encouraging us to learn from the past by saying that when strangers appear to us we “must not repeat the sins of the past.”
Immigration and the Trail of Tears
One of those past sins in the encounters with Native Americans that didn’t go so well was the Trail of Tears. Faced with an “Indian Problem,” White Americans sought a way to claim the valuable land where the Native Tribes lived and that Whites coveted.
In their immigration to America, Europeans met many Tribes who inhabited the land. Naturally, the people of the land learned where the best land for their lifestyles existed. As the settlers grew in America, they came to learn the value of the land inhabited by the Native Tribes.
The existence of Native Americans on valuable land became a problem. To overcome this problem and give White Americans what they coveted, at the expense of the Native Americans, President Andrew Jackson called for “Indian Removal,” and signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Similar to Negro Removal…I mean Urban Renewal, the policy was to coerce and compel Native Americans to move from their land, even if by force, to make way for the desires of White Americans.
Imagine: those whose immigration to America and possession of the land was illegal, forcibly removed others who were the long-standing inhabitants of that land! President Jackson ultimately ignored the ruling by the Supreme Court that the Cherokee people did not have to move. This led to Federal troops forcibly removing men, women and children from their homes…from their land, and marching them (1 in 4 to their death) out West to what became Indian Reservations.
Immigration and the New Trail of Tears
It seems we are preparing to repeat the sins of the past. Again, White Americans are feeling threatened by the problems of “the Other.” Where there once was an Indian Problem and a Negro Problem, there is now a “Mexican Problem.”
Donald Trump and the GOP Presidential Candidates (except Jeb Bush) are championing the idea of “Mexican Removal,” or “Hispanic Removal.” Mr. Trump, who leads all GOP polls, has suggested deporting more than 11 million immigrants who are here illegally. This suggestion has received broad support. And the majority of the opposition to his plan is rooted in the expense of it, and not the inhumanity.
Mr. Trump won’t give any details about how he would envision deporting the 11 million immigrants, but I envision a new trail of tears. Not necessarily that millions of immigrants will be forced to walk from all over the country, to some exit point in Texas. But, if it is done…however it is done…this proposed solution to the immigration problem will leave a trail of tears.
In Immigration: Surely We Can Have Greater Compassion
As Pope Francis asked: “What lengths would we go to in order to give a better life to our own children?” If the United States of America was truly the beacon of freedom, and life was so overbearing in other parts of the world, would we not take the chance of entering America – even if illegally? If we love America as much as we do, then can we blame others for clamoring to enter America at all costs?
What shall be our solution to the problems of immigration in America? Is there not a way for us to bring more love and compassion to the situation? Or, shall we simply launch a new trail of tears?
