The title of this column is borrowed from Woody Guthrie’s song “Deportee” about undocumented Mexican laborers. Thirty-two people died in 1948 when a U.S. Immigration Service plane carrying them from California to Mexico crashed.  News accounts listed the names of the four person flight crew but just described the other 28 as “deportees”.  That disrespect inspired Guthrie’s song.

President Trump has decided to end President Obama’s DACA policy that allowed children brought to the US illegally to remain here as non-citizens.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions made it clear that unless congress passes a law protecting them, the USA will arrest and deport these young people who have been here for most of their lives.

Some of your neighbors and classmates have no idea what comes next for them.  Without a revised immigration law they will be deported, but to where?  The nations from which their parents emigrated may have no records of their existence. They may not have citizenship rights anywhere.  They will be sent to places where they have no job and no means of support.  Their education has been in English and they are culturally American.  Amidst such uncertainty, one thing they will know is that the role of law enforcement is to deport them.  There will be no trust.

Sessions explained that he and President Trump are just doing their jobs.  He is correct that President Trump has the authority to rescind the executive order that created DACA and that we are a nation of laws; where the role of the executive branch is to enforce the law, not to make it or judge it.

Mark Twain said that “A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.”   The justification offered by Sessions and Trump is a half-truth that ignores the role of American government and business in allowing and encouraging illegal immigration.  That half of the truth has continued unabated since long before Guthrie wrote his song.

I’ve seen truckloads of migrant workers traveling to and from fields where they harvested our fruits and vegetables; and I knew that many of them were here illegally.  I’ve known some of the farmers who built simple housing where migrants lived until the harvest was complete.  That’s still going on from California to North Carolina.  I’ve seen thousands of immigrants working in textile, furniture, and other manufacturing plants.  I’ve toured construction sites where you needed to know Spanish in order to understand the conversation among people doing demolition, hanging drywall and painting.  I’ve also seen that among those who earn a living in landscaping, golf course maintenance, roofing, cooking, hotel housekeeping…the list goes on. You’ve seen it too.  But have you ever heard of law enforcement raiding a giant chicken processing plant, farm or business and arresting the executives who employed undocumented workers?  Neither have I.

I knew that many of those workers were here illegally and I knew that they brought their children along.  I saw them in my local schools, where some of them graduated with high honors.  Some have given their lives in our armed forces.  You’ve seen the same things and you know what I know – that American employers sought out immigrants as a source of inexpensive labor.  We also know that law enforcement looked the other way while business profits soared, due in large part to immigrant labor.

We all know that some laws have been unjust and immoral; and that some businesses won’t let legalities or morality stand between them and profits.  That’s the same now as it was in the 1940s. Today, the children of immigrants are settling in and succeeding as Americans.  The second half of the truth is that laws which force them to leave their homes, communities and families are immoral and unjust laws.

The laws and enforcement policies of the 1940s were about using cheap, mobile labor until it was no longer useful and then deporting the workers.  That was wrong then and it’s wrong now, even if deportation is legal.  It’s time to respect the people who have done some of our least rewarding work and their children by providing a pathway to full citizenship.  They have earned the rights that the rest of us received at birth.

Listen to Woody’s song at the link above. Think about it. Speak up.  And sing along.