The eCrozier

What are we becoming as a people? Our unbridled political partisanship is making us unable to see where politics must end and basic human decency must begin. I refer first to the case of Scott Warren who was charged with a crime last year for providing food, water, and beds to undocumented immigrants near his Arizona home. All he did was respond to two men who asked for food, water, and a place to rest. He gave them all three. He never hid the men or encouraged them to break any law. For that he was arrested and charged with a crime. The jury (thankfully) was unable to reach a verdict on whether he was a criminal. When we criminalize compassion, we’ve reached a level of moral indifference that ought to alarm all of us. To be sure, we should debate immigration policy. There are people who make strong points on the many sides of this complex issue. But criminalizing compassion? Bless our hearts.

This moral issue is also marked by the growing number of unaccompanied minors that the Customs & Board Patrol is holding in detention under sub-human conditions. While the problem has reached crisis proportions, it’s hardly new. Four administrations (two Democrat and two Republican – how’s that for bipartisanship?) have failed miserably to address this while it was a smaller problem. Now it’s become a major crisis. In 1997, The Flores Decision set basic humane standards to care for migrant children in government custody. This legal decision came about because such humane standards weren’t being kept then. And while it’s an historic bipartisan embarrassment, it’s become a crisis under the current administration’s stewardship because they’ve ignored the facts and blamed everyone but themselves. As a veteran advocate for migrant children put it: “In my 22 years of doing visits with children in detention, I have never heard of this level of inhumanity.” Is this some sort of deterrence policy? Does the administration think that if we make the conditions so inhumane that it’ll somehow deter children from crossing the border undocumented? I’d like to know who thought that line of reasoning up? “If we just make things awful enough for them here, then the children will stay in Mexico.” I’d expect such moral reasoning from the Marquis de Sade, but isn’t this country supposed to have higher moral standards than a sadistic sociopath?

This is where certain folk reading this will retreat to their political tribes, blame the other side, and then engage in self-absolution. Sorry, that doesn’t hold any moral water. We can’t absolve ourselves of our moral duty to care for these children. And we can’t justify our government’s behavior by saying the children are just getting what they deserve. Really? How do these children “deserve” such appalling treatment? That’s ascribing a level of agency to them that’s ludicrous. Children are dying in government custody. They’re needlessly suffering deprivation and psychological harm. We have a moral responsibility to end this now.

This shouldn’t be about anybody, especially children, “getting what’s coming to them,” or, in moral theological terms, their so-called “just deserts.” In fact, in some ways, this isn’t even about these children. This is about us and who we are as human beings. So, I ask again: What are we becoming as a people?

+Scott