I listen to political debate, read articles, and talk with my neighbors about immigration.
As I listen and talk and read, I witness xenophobia raise it’s ugly head out of the fear, anger and despair of peoples lives and hearts.
“They're taking our jobs," shout politicians.
“They're taking over our country," write pundits.
“How can we protect ourselves from them? What about the terrorists among them?" ask people around me.
Immigrants have become 'they.'
Through demagoguery and dehumanization, immigrants have become a nameless, faceless spectre around 'us,' have become the stranger, have become the enemy.
When I hear the words 'immigration,' 'immigrant,' or 'illegal alien,' I close my eyes and see the face of one of my students, who I wrote about here -
https://www.scjustice.org/i-send-tomas-to-you/
Ilook through history and find pictures in places like Life Magazine of people putting on tattered coats, holey shoes, and red scarves; picking up battered suitcases that are taped around the sides to keep in their meager, precious possessions; and leaving the lives they know and love in hope to make a better life free from war, famine, disease and extreme poverty.
In the life of my student and his family, in the faces of the people in the pictures, I see human beings.
I remember that I was an immigrant once, that I was welcomed into the country of Mali in west Africa, that I was cared for and loved into a more compassionate, creative and committed person by the people there.
I promise to care for and love immigrants around me as my neighbors in Mali cared for and loved me.
I wrote this poem to help us see the human face of immigration, feel the hearts of immigrants, and know ourselves in the lives of the immigrants around us.
Go now in the name of the immigrant, the human being, and the holy stranger.
Go now to make neighbors out of strangers.
Go now to make friends out of enemies.
Go now with an immigrant heart.
http://www.musepiepress.com/fibreview/issue27/trevor_scott_barton1.html
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