A Moral Measure of Our Society

Many factors are contributing to the historic flows of migration in the world today - wars, climate change, ethnic cleansing, hunger, government policies, and economic insecurity to name a few.  U.S. international trade agreements for example, have driven small farmers off their land and contributed to business failures in many poorer...Read More

Many factors are contributing to the historic flows of migration in the world today - wars, climate change, ethnic cleansing, hunger, government policies, and economic insecurity to name a few.  U.S. international trade agreements for example, have driven small farmers off their land and contributed to business failures in many poorer namtions, resulting in increased migration flows into the U.S. for economic survival. People in those migration streams have become essential to the survival of important U.S. industries.  Our common good requires solutions that recognize our common humanity with the migrants worldwide, acknowledge the role of our economic and political policies in forced migration and our interdependence and mutual responsibility, and enable us to live and work toegether in ways that promote healthy and secure communites for all of us. 

Fear is not the natural state of civilized people. 

Fear is not the natural state of civilized people. 

To face the enemy at home, billions of dollars are bieng budgeted to increase "security" when in vact, we are solving the wrong problem with the wrong tool. "Fear" is dictating our acts of suspicion and exclusion, and becoming a lever whereby clvility and judgement are dismantled.  Immigration is one of...Read More

To face the enemy at home, billions of dollars are bieng budgeted to increase "security" when in vact, we are solving the wrong problem with the wrong tool. "Fear" is dictating our acts of suspicion and exclusion, and becoming a lever whereby clvility and judgement are dismantled.  Immigration is one of the most significant social issues of the day, however the policy debate has been crafted in terms of "security".  Immigration reform begins with economic and political reform, not with criminalizing those who reach for the dream we export.  Immigration reform begins with recognizing a failed immigration policy. 

Deportation of the large undocumented population is not practical.  Deporting 8 - 9 million undocumented immigrants would cost more than $200 billion over five years, more than double the annual budget of the entire Homeland Security Dept.  It would take 200,000 buses, bumper to bumpter, in a convoy 1,700 miles long,...Read More

Deportation of the large undocumented population is not practical.  Deporting 8 - 9 million undocumented immigrants would cost more than $200 billion over five years, more than double the annual budget of the entire Homeland Security Dept.  It would take 200,000 buses, bumper to bumpter, in a convoy 1,700 miles long, to transport our undocumented immigrants to the border. 

Each year, thousands of people come to the U.S. on speical visas to be employed as domestic workers by foreign nationals, diplomats, and officials of other international agencies, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.  These domestic workers are among the most abused and vulnerable of migrant workers, because...Read More

Each year, thousands of people come to the U.S. on speical visas to be employed as domestic workers by foreign nationals, diplomats, and officials of other international agencies, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.  These domestic workers are among the most abused and vulnerable of migrant workers, because their employers enjoy diplomatic immunity from U.S. law.  Many cases of domestic worker abuse have been exposed in the Washington DC area.