Illegal Immigration Sweeps

On April 3, the Inquirer published an article by Kevin Freking.  It began, "The Obama administration said Monday that it had arrested more than 3,100 immigrants who were illegally in the country and had been convicted of serious crimes or otherwise were considered fugitives or threats to national security."  This is only partially true.  The Obama administration did arrest 3,100 immigrants in a 6 day national sweep.
I work with a lot of Hispanics, some of whom are immigrants.  They are not criminals.  I will give you 3 examples, not using their real names.  There is Isabel.  Isabel was brought here when she was 15 years old, married, divorced, and now raising 2 teenage boys by herself.  This is not an easy task.  As any single mother will tell you trying to work and be present to your children and helping them with their life challenges is a very demanding and exhausting job.  Add to that you do not have documents, so you can't legally drive; you can't get a job because you and your employer will be penalized.  I wonder what threat this woman is to national security or even what interest she has in terrorizing a nation when her hands are full with raising two boys without any legal documents.  Or maybe the criminal he was referring to was Alba.  Alba was brought to this country when she was 5 years old.  She is a credit to this country.  She was raised in the American school system, pledged allegiance to the flag, sang the star-spangled banner, went to a university, and yet she does not have legal documents.  She has been convicted of no crimes.  In fact she is a very generous person, who has done hours of volunteer work for worthy causes.  What was her crime?  Obeying her parents when she was 5 years old.  For this, the Obama administration would like to deport her by dropping her on the other side of the border to a land which she is unfamiliar, without any money and the inability to get to any distant relatives she may have heard of and never met.  Then, there is Maria.  What is Maria's crime?  Oh, that's right, she is a criminal according to our laws.  However, I do not think her crime is serious nor do I think it is a threat to national security.  She is the mother of 3 young children, all American citizens, and was already deported once.  If you come back after being deported, it is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.  I do not know of too many mothers who would not do the same thing as Maria.  Good mothers do not abandon their small children.  Most of us, I hope, would do exactly what Maria did and try to be reunited with her young children who needed her.  I know of many more cases where innocent immigrants, many elegible for the Dream Act, have been unjustly imprisoned.  I am only one person, and know so many.  I would imagine there have been many, many more who have not committed serious crimes, or are a threat to national security.  I can just imagine generations from now reading the history of this time, and question,  "What were they thinking?"

Easter Reflection

Today is Easter.  As I was reflecting on Paul's letter to the Colossians, I was struck how he was saying because of Jesus' resurrection, "...you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."   God has blessed me with old age.  This is the time when you really face your limits and if you did not know it before, it is right in front of you all the time - this life is not all there is.  Cardwell Nuckols, a psychologist and Christian wrote a book called the ego-less self.  He borrows Thomas Keatings terminology in talking about the false self.  Nuckols calls the false self the ego who wants power, control, security, esteem and affection.  These are like hooks that feed the false self.  As the saying goes, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."  We see this frequently throughout the world.  We see it in human trafficking; we see it in the dictators who destroy their own people.  We see the need for security taken to an extreme when whatever you have is never enough.  What keeps drug cartels going?  The desire for more and more money, more security.  Human trafficking is about making profit at the expense of innocent children, women, and men, so those that are engaged in it can feel financially secure, and then some.  How often have people sold their souls for what other people think?  Compromised their own values, so they look better in someone else's eyes?  The sad part is I can see all these characteristics within myself at a much less newsworthy scale.   The true Self is the divine spark within each one of us.  When I was studying catechism as a child, we called this sanctifying grace.  My challenge as a Christian who believes in the resurrection of Jesus is to die to this false self, so that I may be more in touch with that Divine spark.  As Richard Rohr says, God loves us and we cannot add to that love or subtract from it.  We can accept it, respond to it, and grow in it, but we have no control over the fact that God loves us.  So day by day, hidden with Christ in God, I make the effort to die to the false self and grow in the love of the resurrected Christ.