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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2016)
Page 6 June 29, 2016 O PINION Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Ineffective and Inhumane Border Enforcement Doubling down on our policies is ridiculous J ill r iChardson I recently stayed with a friend who lives just a few miles from the Mex- ican border — and from the start of the Paciic Crest Trail. Since I was there anyway, I thought, what the heck? I might as well hike a bit of it. I’d walked less than a quarter mile from the wall at the border — yes, there’s already a wall along much of the border — when Border Patrol stopped me. “Out taking nature photogra- phy, Miss?” the man asked. “That your Toyota?” The next time I went out, I returned to ind Border Patrol by parked behind me, inspecting my car. The last time I was on the trail, at about nine miles from the border, I could see the highway for a brief section of my hike. I watched a white and green Border Patrol vehicle pass. Then another. I jokingly thought I should start counting them, but I doubted I’d see any more. Then three more passed in about as many minutes. I hope they’re either making a major drug bust or going to a staff meeting, I thought. Because oth- erwise this is ridiculous. Unfortunately, “ridiculous” is winning out. Our country will shell out up- wards of $14 billion to blanket our country with Border Patrol agents this year. Yet about 40 percent of undocumented immi- grants arrive legally and overstay their visas, so any effort to “se- cure the border” with a wall or patrols won’t catch them. As for the people actually ap- prehended at the border, NPR re- ports that a growing number are refugees leeing violence in Cen- tral America who turn themselves in voluntarily. I don’t know about you, but I’m not all that concerned about letting in 13-year-old Salvador- ian girls escaping murder threats back home. The other major stick the gov- ernment uses with undocumented immigrants is deportation. But that may be making the situation in Central America worse, since deported gang members contrib- ute to the violent situation there, driving more people to lee north- ward. And consider how crops rotted in the ields in Alabama and Geor- gia when those states stepped up immigration enforcement and the undocumented laborers who worked on farms there were forced out. In short: What are we doing? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but it appears that sim- ply doubling down on border en- forcement isn’t one of them. In the era of Trump, any pol- icy that can be called “amnesty” may sound politically toxic. But what if we did grant amnesty to law-abiding undocumented im- migrants who are already here? That could free up our immi- gration authorities to focus on criminal drug cartels and terror- ist threats, instead of people who came here peacefully to support their families. As for the drug gangs, wouldn’t it be smarter to deprive them of their lucrative business? Already there are signs that the legaliza- tion of marijuana in a few states has taken a big chunk out of their proits. Or we could modernize our immigration quotas, so that com- ing here legally wouldn’t mean waiting upwards of 20 years, as it does now for Mexican families. It stands to reason that if one could come here legally, one would choose to do so. The al- ternative — crossing a desert on foot at great expense and risk of death, and then hiding in the shadows once here — is a much worse option. Instead of simply focusing on border policing and deporting anyone who lacks documentation, we should take a more systematic approach to assess our priorities — and then craft policies that achieve them in a cost-effective and humane way. Otherwords columnist Jill Richardson is the author of Rec- ipe for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. OtherWords. org. Do Everything in Our Power to End this Scourge Inaction cannot be an option m arian W right e delman Inaction is not an op- tion. In the wake of the worst mass shooting in American history we can and must do ev- erything in our power to end this scourge of terror, hate and bullets that ly across our land killing and maiming and breaking hearts and traumatizing communities with ever increasing frequency. How can inaction continue to be an op- tion in the face of senselessness and intolerance fueled by guns? We must act to save our country’s soul and the lives of our people — all of our people. The June 12 attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando was both our nation’s worst act of terror- ism since 9/11 and a hate crime. A large number of victims were gay people of color who were cel- ebrating Latin Night in what many said they trusted and believed was a desperately needed “safe space.” But as we have seen over and over again, America is running out of safe spaces. Not Pulse. Not Bible study at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church. Not an ofice hol- iday party in San Bernardino. Not a movie theater in Aurora. Not a dorm or university hall at Vir- ginia Tech. And not a irst grade by classroom in Newtown, Conn., in a country where hate, bigotry, ter- rorism, and mental illness collide with unfettered access to these weapons of war that leave us with no hiding spaces unless we do something now. Connecticut Sen. Christopher Murphy couldn’t face the families of the children of Sandy Hook unless he did some- thing. The Senate ilibus- Closing the loopholes in existing background checks to reach sales at gun shows and through the In- ternet to keep more criminals, would-be terrorists, and others from buying guns should be an- other easy decision. The evidence is clear that expanded background checks work. A recent study found that a Connecticut law that ex- panded background checks on all handgun purchases helped achieve a 40 percent reduction support reinstating the ban on as- sault weapons and high capacity magazines that have been used time and time again: To kill the innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the innocent people in the Aurora movie the- ater, the innocents in San Ber- nardino, and now Orlando. Why should it be perfectly legal to buy an AR-15 in a Five Guys parking lot in Vermont the day after the massacre at Pulse with no back- Since 1963 more than 176,000 children have died from gun violence in America — over three times more than all the soldiers killed in action in the Vietnam War and every external conlict since. Our children have a right to grow up in a caring and decent society that protects their right to live and learn in safety. ter he led in the aftermath of the Orlando slaughter lasted for more than 14 hours before there was bi- partisan agreement to allow a vote on two common sense amend- ments that would make all of us and our nation safer. Creating a “No Buy List” so that the more than 800,000 people on our terror watch lists cannot le- gally buy guns in America should be an easy decision for all of us. in gun homicides during the irst 10 years following the law’s en- actment. These are measures the majority of Americans strongly support — and it’s long past time that Congress followed the will of the people instead of the will of the National Rile Association and gun manufacturers whose prof- its are soaked in the blood of our people. The majority of Americans also ground check and no paperwork at all? Weapons designed for war are now as easy to buy as a loaf of bread. Since 1963 more than 176,000 children have died from gun vi- olence in America — over three times more than all the soldiers killed in action in the Vietnam War and every external conlict since. Our children have a right to grow up in a caring and decent society that protects their right to live and learn in safety. That right must take precedence over anyone’s right to own assault weapons or high capacity magazines that have nothing to do with self-defense or hunting and have no place in the hands of non-military and non-law enforcement personnel. Without these weapons of war how many would be alive today? How many Newtown or Aurora or Orlando victims would have survived? Unless we want to give up and agree that the only way to survive our nation’s gun violence crisis which goes on and on and on in this land of ours, is for every adult, teenager, and child in America to own a gun, we need to provide common sense safety solutions like a “No Buy List,” universal background checks, and a ban on assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines — now. Our children are afraid for their friends, their families, and them- selves. And this needs to change. We all need to stand up until we are heard and laws are changed. Contact your senators and repre- sentatives in Congress right now to urge them to support these com- mon sense safety solutions all of us so desperately need. Please act now. Inaction cannot not be an op- tion in a decent, caring nation that purports to value human life. Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s De- fense Fund.