The Story of Isa Ramoul

   I shall call him Isa, Isa Ramoul, the poorest of the poor in Mexico. As a birthday present to himself, when he turned 23, he headed north, thinking to find a job and a living in a land he honored and revered.
   Hadn't he heard you need to get permission to come to America? Check. He had. But, he had also heard that even without paperwork, you could stay. It would take a long time before they would catch up with you and send you home. In the meantime, he figured to be working, earning money, and sending it home to his wife and their two babies.
   If you wonder about his character, Isa was an honest type. Didn't want to join the cartels just to make a living, although joining the cartels was a certain way to make a good income. But, that was not for Isa. His mother had raised him different than that, teaching him to stay away from crime.
   So, he headed north.
    He didn't bring enough food, and barely enough water. He stumbled through the border territory without a guide, arriving on the American side of the line hungering and thirsting and a stranger to all -- and anxious to knock on a door and ask for help.
   Now, Mr. Biddle had had a lot of migrants knock his door before. They were a nuisance -- an unwanted, unwelcome, uncomely nuisance. They were all criminals and drug burros, to him. So, as you might guess, this didn't go too well.
  "Help me! Please help me," Isa pleaded as Mr. Biddle swung open the door.
   "You scum. You criminal," came the reply. "Shall I call the Border Patrol, or will you go back on your own? You heard me, go back where you belong! Get out of here! Leave me alone!"
   Isa stumbled up to another two or three doors before someone finally called the Border Patrol and had him arrested. Seems in this new country he had he had entered, they didn't think in terms of helping people out, only of kicking them out. They really weren't bad people, these Americans, but somehow they had gotten it in their heads that these immigrants coming in from Mexico were going to ruin their country. Somehow, they figured that instead of being shown charity, the immigrants needed to be taught a lesson.
   Now, that might make perfect sense to you, but it doesn't to me.

Which Category do These Child Immigrants Fall Into?

   I do want the child immigrants to be allowed to stay, if it is what is best for them, but I keep wondering how they qualify for asylum. As I understand our law, you need to show that you are one of five classes before you can apply for asylum. You must be being persecuted in your homeland on the basis or race, religion, nationality, political belief, or social group. The children immigrants we are getting are supposedly fleeing violence, but I don't know that they fit in any of the five categories.
  Perhaps, none are staying under our asylum laws, as they don't qualify. Perhaps it is just under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 that they are being allowed to stay.

What if We Treated Gaza Like We did Iraq?

   What if we took the same approach with Gaza that we took with Iraq? I'm not saying we should, but am throwing it out as an idea for discussion. What if we decided, like we did in Iraq, that terrorism was behind the government, and we went in and obliterated the government and installed a democracy?

These are not Invaders; They are Needy People

   If 2.5 million people fled violence in Syria, we, reading our newspapers in America, would not say the neighboring countries were being invaded; we would say the 2.5 people were refugees.
   If 2.7 million people were displaced by the Balkan War in what was formerly called Yugoslavia, we, listening to the news in America, would not say the neighboring countries were being invaded; we, again, would say those fleeing the violence were but refugees.
   If people fled one warring nation in Africa to find peace in another, we would be understanding, and want them to have the peace they sought.
   But, if 57,000 child immigrants came north from Central America, passing through Mexico and then crossing into the United States, that would be an invasion.
   I will grant that the violence might not be as great. I will grant that they could go to closer countries to the south than coming all this far to the north. Still, whatever reason they are coming for, they are not coming as invaders. It seems most of them truly are needy people. To call needy people reaching out their hands for help "invaders" does not seem equitable, just or clear-minded, to me.
   Oh, I am aware that when those in other lands flee, the people in the lands they flee to also reject the refugees, same as we are rejecting the child refugees. I read of the rejection in Germany of those from the Balkan War.
   But, I would that we would not reject a needy people, even as I would that Germany would not reject needy people.

These Scriptures Should be on the Frontlets of My Eyes

   I sense an urgency to know well the scriptures speaking of the return of the Jews, and to be able to recall them to discuss them. I think of Deuteronomy 6:6-8 saying how the Lord's word should "be as the frontlets between thine eyes." That is as if to say, memorize these things and know them. "And thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house, and on thy gates," it goes on to says in that Deuteronomy passage.
   I ran across some such scriptures today while reading the Book of Mormon, as the Book of Mormon quotes whole chapters of Isaiah. It is while reading there that I felt this urgency to be able to recall such scriptures.
   "For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return," it says in Isaiah 10:22.
   Isaiah 11:12 speaks of how the Lord will "gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
   Among other Isaiah scriptures I ran across while doing my Book of Mormon reading was Isaiah 11:12, that speaks of assembling the outcasts of Israel. Inasmuch as I have been thinking much of the immigrants at our border, and knowing many of them have Indian blood in them, I thought how there is no one we know of the tribes of Israel today more outcast than the immigrant from south of the border. That "outcasts of Israel" speaks of the Jew, it is sure, but I cannot see how it does not also speak of those from south of the border, for they truly contain the blood of Israel and they truly are outcast. You would be hard pressed to find a people in our day who are more outcast.

We Would Sent Child Refugees Back into the Jaws of Violence?

   Americans wish the child immigrants would be deported faster? So says a Pew Research poll, showing 53 percent of Americans want the process accelerated, even though it mean some who might qualify for asylum find themselves deported.
   I shake my head in disbelief that this is my America, a people who I like to believe are caring and loving and helpful to those in need. We would send children back to the jaws of violence that they are fleeing from?
   Yes, we don't know what share of the children are fleeing violence. But, it seems some are. Would we say -- as the poll indicates -- we do not care if you flee flee oppression or violence, you arrived without permission, so go back.
   Our hatred of someone who comes without paperwork is strong, indeed.

Bachmann Wrongly Faulted Foreign Nationals for Rape, Bus Accident

   Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann made headlines when she went on CNN Tuesday and said: "My heart is broken for a female college student in Minnesota who was raped, murdered and mutilated by a foreign national who came into our country. We had a school bus full of kids in Minnesota -- four children were killed on that school bus because an illegal alien driving a van went into that schoolbus."
  Bachmann's point was that we don't need the foreign nationals and those disparagingly referred to as "illegal aliens." But, what if we changed the words "a foreign national" to "an African-American" and the words "an illegal alien" to "a person of same-sex attraction"?
   You don't blame a whole class of people for the crimes of a few. To judge the many by the few is wrong, regardless what group of society you select.