Republicans keep painting a picture of drug dealers, COVID-19 infectors and terrorists crossing our southern border in numbers threatening the very fabric of American society. The truth is the majority are asylum seekers from South America fleeing calamitous living conditions and gangs of deplorable thugs. They see America as an escape to safety and a path to economic well-being. In addition to innocent children, most adults are enthusiastically willing to initially seek hard-to-fill menial jobs. The vast majority represent a future source of devoted and productive citizenship.
A significant influx of immigrants actually portends a more positive than negative outcome. The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its population trends for the period ending July 2018. The American growth rate of .62% for 2017-18 was the lowest registered in 80 years. As recently reported by the Associated Press, “the U.S. birth rate fell 4% last year, the largest single-year decrease in nearly 50 years.”
The U.S. isn’t yet facing the dire economic circumstances of Japan and its plummeting population, but it’s moving in the same direction. As reported by author Jun Saito (of the Japan Center for Economic Research in the East Asia Forum) one solution is attempting to overcome a historic reluctance by a native Japanese population to welcome immigrant workers of other races to help fill the void. Sound familiar?
With American Indians being the only original inhabitants of America, it has been a constant flow of diverse immigrants resulting in building one of the most successful nations ever to inhabit our planet. A welcoming comprehensive and compassionate immigration policy at our southern border will strengthen, not detract, from our future national well-being.
Raymond A. Hult, Bountiful