Maybe We Should All Go Back

by

Special to United Methodist Insight

While working my way through college, I had a job installing duct work at a site in the suburbs east of Los Angeles. One day the journeyman who was training me shouted at some Chicano roofers, "Why don't you go back where you came from."

Taken aback, I said, "But they're from here."

The journeyman replied angrily, "What are you talking about? They're a bunch of Mexican wetbacks!”  

"This was Mexico before it was the United States," I answered. "Their families were here before ours."  He didn’t believe me.

As I headed home a little later, I realized that he lived in La Habra and drove through La Mesa on his way to work in Yorba Linda in the state of California—which all had Spanish names. Nor did I  think to point out was that his parents had immigrated from Germany and my Scottish grandfather had slipped across the Canadian border, long after  la raza made its home here.

On Long Island, I sometimes heard people voice similar sentiments, people who live in communities with Algonquin names who are not themselves Montauketts, Shinnecocks, or Poospatucks. People whose parents or grandparents had immigrated from Italy or Ireland or Germany. Perhaps they are right. Maybe we all should return to our place of birth.

I am not sure, though, what my wife and I should do, since I am an Angeleno and she is from Bismarck, North Dakota. Or should we return to the homelands of our parents? Our grandparents? Should I return to Kirkentilloch, Chattanooga, Minneapolis, or Quebec? Should my wife return to Canada, Denmark, or Germany? Where should Baron Trump go? Germany or Slovenia?

If those roofers in Yorba Linda should “go back” to Mexico, I should “return” to Merry Olde England. William Goodhue came here for the freedom to practice his religion--even if his fellow Puritans did not grant this right to others--but I could easily find that today in the United Kingdom. My grandfather came here as a young man to escape grinding poverty, but Scotland is prosperous these days. Perhaps the Southwest should be left to Latinos and Long Island to Native Americans. Since we all descend from East Africans, maybe we should all return to the Mother Continent. 

Some people are so upset about illegal immigration that they n want to deport everyone who came here without a visa or have overstayed one or worked without green cards. If native-born children don’t want to separated from their parents, some say, they can leave, too. You know, people like the First Lady and her son. And the Pilgrims, whom the King of England only allowed to settle in Virginia and who never received permission of any sort from the Wampanoags. Nor did the residents of Massachusetts issue visas or green cards to my Puritan ancestors, either.

Fixing our broken immigration laws is not easy. We need to secure our borders without excluding those who seek refuge. Our economy desperately needs foreign workers but we do not want terrorists sneaking into the country. It is difficult to get the balance right, let alone to enact any reform in Congress. Immigrants deserve compassion, whether or not they ultimately are allowed to remain here. The Bible repeatedly calls us to defend “the sojourner among you” but not everyone who applies for asylum has a legitimate claim.

It might be easier, though, if we remember what Pope Francis told the U. S. Congress: ”Most of us once were foreigners. I say this as the son of immigrants, knowing that many of you are the descendants of immigrants.” Immigrants deserve to be treated with respect, regardless of whether they are fleeing persecution or trying to build a better life for their families. My ancestors, after all, came here for both reasons. Perhaps yours did, too.

The Rev. Thomas W. Goodhue served United Methodist churches in Hawaii and New York and led the Long Island Council of Churches for 17 years. His most recent book is Queen Kaahumanu of Hawaii (McFarland).