I don’t believe, in light of the Ger Tashuv concept, it is a stretch to state that if one by his/her actions demonstrates unwillingness to respect and abide by the laws of our society, particularly by violating our society’s immigration laws, he/she is not welcome as a supposed modern day “Ger Tashuv” in the United States.
All the more is this the situation, as, while our immigration laws do give special consideration to those subject to persecution in their home country over those who wish to come to the United States to improve their economic status, the illegal immigrant from Mexico, for example, makes no such assertion. He/she is a citizen of a democracy, however flawed. As a citizen one must take on the obligation of citizenship in a democratic society to be actively involved in the governing of that society through advocacy and the voting booth – an obligation of citizenship we in the United States proudly proclaim. Crossing the border for economic opportunity in light of the classic understanding of a citizen’s responsibility accrues to them little merit.
Finally, while others who today are fighting for their lives and the lives of their children cannot come to America, a perfect example, the horrors daily being perpetrated in Darfur, unlike our neighbors to the south who can cross the Rio Grande (it really isn’t grand but rather an unimpressive river), for economic opportunity, those in Darfur must languish in daily fear of death or torture because they cannot swim across the Atlantic ocean. My heart, my Jewish moral compass tells me that the cause of those wishing to flee the persecution in their homeland should trump the cause of those who illegally arrived in the United States for economic advantage. The words of Emma Lazarus emblazoned upon the Statue of Liberty,
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.”
call out to the world to send us those unwanted and persecuted, “tempest tost” folks. It is the lamp of freedom, of liberty, which that grand lady holds aloft for the entire world to see.
I am not attempting to minimize the problem of immigration and the moral dilemmas it places before American society. Obviously it is a complex and gut wrenching situation as we are dealing with the lives of millions of human beings. Yet, to premise ones view on Jewish morality, distorting that morality to justify one’s own preconceived position, and, at the same time not accept upon oneself the obligations of that very self-same Jewish morality when you wish to reject it whole cloth, as is evidenced by the abortion issue, is disingenuous to say the least.
We as citizens have the right to express any view we feel appropriate to remedy a given problem in our society. I respect the right of other Jews to differ on the immigration issue. I find it objectionable, however, for them to cloak their position in so-called “Jewish” morality distorting the very nature of that Jewish morality to justify their position.