By Hollis Wormsby, Jr.
In the light of the ongoing outcry over the policies of the current administration in handling attempts at illegal immigration into this country, there have been some that have screamed that open borders is the only humane solution, and even some who have cried out for Birmingham, Alabama to declare itself a sanctuary city. Certainly, there is a need for humanity and compassion in our immigration policy, but have the people screaming for open borders given any thought to what they are asking for?
There are approximately 6.9 billion people on the planet earth. The United States of America has a population of approximately 357 million people or approximately 5 percent of the population of the world. Without question the United States’ population has the highest quality of life in the world, as even the lowest income Americans live better than most everyone else in the world. While there are exceptions such as Flint, Michigan, for the most part all Americans live with the daily expectation of clean water, reliable energy and a place to call home.
If there are 6.9 billion people in the world it is safe to say that there are over 4 billion people in the world living in dire conditions. So, if we are to heed the counsel of the folks screaming for open borders then a country that currently supports 357 million people would suddenly need to develop the capacity to support as many as billions more.
The reality is we do not have the resources to care for every impoverished person on the planet. Another reality is that it costs funding in real dollars to absorb millions of persons from around the world, that as a country operating under a huge deficit already, I don’t believe we have.
I would draw similar numbers for the people calling on Birmingham to become a sanctuary city. Birmingham already endures an incredibly high poverty rate for the people who actually live in the city. Our school system is already challenged to educate the children who are born here, what makes the people calling for sanctuary status believe that adding tens of thousands of immigrant children with special needs is going to help us provide an education for our own kids that we are already not able to adequately provide funding for.
I think that there are those who are using border entry tactics to overcome the spirit of American immigration law, and that those who keep showering us with images of how the United States responds are still not explaining how we could function as a country or a community if we opened our doors without question to whomever decided they were in need of new opportunities.
I have been financially responsible for two children for the last 16 years, and one thing that I know I feel personally, is that I am not doing anything for anybody else while my own children have needs. We have children right now growing up in inner city Chicago, or Harlem or Detroit or a host of other cities, that are growing with gang terrorism all around them. What is our solution for them? We have homeless veterans who have sacrificed so much for the freedoms we enjoy. What is our solution for them? We have senior citizens who have to choose between groceries and their medicines. What are we doing for them? For me, until we are doing for all of our own, our focus should not be on the problems of someone else.
I also feel that we need to look at not just our immigration policy but how we conduct our military and our foreign aid as well. Maybe if instead of having the largest military budget in the world, we should invest in economic development in some of the countries from which the folks showing up at our borders are fleeing from, to try to create greater opportunity for them in their home countries.
I do not enjoy seeing images of crying babies or the stories of people being separated from their families in any way. But this isn’t just a problem of a poor United States immigration policy, it is a problem of global poverty that is impacting billions of people. As much as I would like to wave a magic wand and solve the problem, I cannot. Having a compassionate immigration policy should certainly be a goal for a country as great as ours. But open borders and sanctuary cities are ideas that need a great deal of thought before trying to be implemented.
Or at least that’s the way I see it.
(Hollis Wormsby has served as a featured columnist for the Birmingham Times for more than 29 years. He is the former host of Talkback on 98.7 KISS FM and of Real Talk on WAGG AM. If you would like to comment on this column you can email him at hjwormsby@aol.com.)
