The Invisible Border

Immigration became a hot-button issue in the mid-80's when HIV/AIDS was identified and after 9/11, calls for tougher immigration laws were heard from virtually every corner of the US. I don't understand how any American citizen who can trace their ancestry to any continent other than North America can even support immigration limits. What gives this generation the right to say "OK, we've had enough!" Where would we be if someone had done that a generation or three before us? This country was founded by immigrants and it was built by immigrants and if I had my way, we'd still be welcoming as many immigrants as wanted to come here. To not do so is hypocritical and the antithesis of why this nation was founded. But that's another topic for another day.

The call to "tighten our borders" for security (which is impossible to do unless we want to live in some place like East Germany), has come down to the ludicrous. We're now building a wall along the border with Mexico that is supposed to stem the flow of illegal immigrants. To me, it sounds like nothing more than a modern Berlin wall. The cost of the wall is staggering and, for the money spent, it's not creating a whole lot of jobs. And has been shown recently, with the discovery of a 1000' tunnel with lighting, ventilation and even an elevator that ran up to 100' underground and went 860' across the US border, those wanting to cross will go to any lengths to be able to do so. But there's an immigration tactic that creates an invisible border wall and it involves what is tantamount to medical blackmail.

Female immigrants between the ages of 11 and 26 who are seeking citizenship in the US are required to get the Gardasil vaccine. Even if they're not having sex. Even though there are questions about the safety of the vaccine. Even if their religion says that sex before marriage is a sin— and they're abiding by that. Now let's say you're an immigrant family and you're applying for citizenship and your daughter is 12 years old. If you don't allow her to be vaccinated, she can't become a citizen. So when she reaches legal age, she can be deported and you get to stay behind in your new country.

But Gardasil is not the only vaccine you may be required to take. Immigration law requires that girls and women within a certain age group get all vaccinations advised by the CDC's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. Regardless of your personal beliefs regarding vaccines or the health risks associated with them. Such requirements can break up families and even prevent them from being able to immigrate.

You also can't immigrate or even visit the US if you are HIV positive, which means that in countries hit hard by HIV/AIDS, up to half the population is ineligible to immigrate, especially if they want to immigrate as a family. Although there is hope that President Obama will lift the ban in January, that doesn't change the fact that, despite more than a decade of knowing how the virus is transmitted, the ban was left in place due to fear-mongering.

America is becoming more isolationist because of the fear-mongering of conservatives and the radical religious right. Racism is again rearing its ugly head as hate group membership surges. Tough economic times means that, instead of saying "Maybe we didn't save enough for a rainy day and maybe we went beyond what was economically smart", people are saying "It's the immigrants who are taxing our system's resources and taking the jobs from us!" So anyone who is not like "us" becomes one of "them" and the new scapegoat of our hatred and fear.

People need to realize that you cannot win a war on terrorism by tightening our borders. You will feed into the fear of those who are different from us and in doing so, increase the level of hatred in the world. And by tightening our own borders, we're placing restrictions on our own freedoms. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

We're not going to create a better world for US citizens until we create a better world for all the world's citizens. The founding fathers said "All men are created equal", not just "All American citizens are created equal". It's a human right to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and closing our borders is a direct violation of the human rights of the world's citizens. As a bumper sticker I have on my car says, "Everyone does better when everyone does better." (Attributed to the late Sen. Paul Wellstone.)