What is the Right Thing to Do?

One topic neatly sidestepped during the recent Congressional debate on immigration was morality. When immigration reform is framed solely in economic terms, we miss the fact that it is also a moral issue. As a nation, we need to grapple with the question, what is the right thing to do?

We need to look at just a few statistics to get my point. According to the World Bank's latest data, the Gross National Income per capita in the U.S. was $41,400 compared to $7,310 in Mexico. Someone born in this country could expect to live 77 years compared to 52 years in Haiti. Seven out of every 1,000 infants born in the U.S. die at birth compared to 26 infants born in the Philippines. And 84 percent of the Salvadoran population has access to an improved water source compared to 100 percent in this country. It's no wonder people migrate. They're just trying to feed, clothe, and educate their children the way the rest of us do.

There are people who will say look at low-income families in America. Look at the people who have lost their jobs because immigrants work for lower wages. We should take care of the less fortunate who are already here before we open our doors to immigrants. These are real concerns, and the pain inflicted on those families and communities can't and shouldn't be overlooked.

But by ignoring the moral side of the immigration debate, we turn our back on two important aspects of who we are as a nation. This country was founded by immigrants who came here in search of economic as well as religious and political freedom. The Puritans hoped the new community they formed would be a City on the Hill, an example to other nations. Emma Lazarus made accepting "the tired and the poor" an indelible part of our national purpose. This is a legacy we should be proud of and continue to embrace.

What's more, we can't be the world's moral police, when we don't make the right choices at home. We've made a lot of enemies lately by self-satisfyingly going in to fight "the good fight" and justifying it by saying we're "fighting the axis of evil." That's not the right role for any nation. But as long as President Bush continues to put us in that position, we need to ask ourselves how we can possibly claim to occupy it when our own house isn't in order.

What is the right thing to do? How do we make sure that we take care of the poor in this country and new immigrants? It's a big-picture question and it's not a zero-sum game. By that I mean, yes, there are places where the interests of immigrants and the native-born compete, but in the larger scheme of things, immigrants contribute much more good than harm. Furthermore, as a wealthy nation, we have plenty to go around. If we would stop waging war at an estimated price tag of more than $500 billion, building McMansions, and guzzling gas, there would be enough to help poor people inside and outside our borders. The cost of the war alone could buy a college education for about half of the nation's 17 million high-school-age teenagers; pre-school for every three- and four-year-old in the country for the next eight years, or a year's stay in an assisted-living facility for about half of the 35 million Americans age 65 or older. It's a question of priorities and it's a question of doing the right thing.

As the immigration debate goes on in cities and towns across the nation, we need to ask ourselves, what is our moral responsibility as the world's richest, most powerful country? And how can we continue to hold ourselves up as a beacon and example if we continually fail to meet it?