July 9th 2017 - Matthew Heersink
The many thoughts that go through my head as the country debates our border. To build the wall and exclude all others or open our borders for all who are safe to enjoy the beauty of our country. The migrant worker traveling by foot, through the heat of the desert, under the stars of night that glitter in the sky like diamonds, to build a better life for the family he had to leave behind in Mexico. What is the right thing to do? What is the compassionate thing to do?
I start by reflecting on my own experience with immigrants. I grew up on the construction sites in Colorado. Pulling up in our work trucks to a house being built with sounds of Mexican music playing from the carpet layers radio. Both Spanish speaking and English speaking people running around, working hard to build the many houses we are mass producing. Every neighborhood we go into has a taco wagon announcing its arrival with a mariachi horn. A group of Spanish speaking guys sitting in the garage at lunch time with a microwave cooking authentic Mexican cuisine. The aroma will make your mouth water as you’re hauling ass through the garage to complete your job so you can move onto the next house.
They become our friends, our brothers as we are all serving the same purpose. As you watch the immigrants with their tremendous work ethic, their curiosity to learn a new language in a foreign land, a purpose to leave their loved ones to properly provide for them, the long bus rides home to visit for the weekend and then return back to work on Monday morning. These are survivors, people willing to do whatever it takes, people who looked at their current situation and realized they had to make the journey across the border to provide food and shelter for the people they love most. This journey to me seems to be a selfless act of humanity and it shows the human survival instinct to provide food and shelter for the people we love the most.
I often try to put myself in their situation. What would I do if our lives were reversed? What would I do if I was in a town that had no work, no way for me to provide food for my kids, but right across the border of the neighboring country the economy was thriving, There were many jobs, jobs I would gladly do that they really didn’t want to be doing. Jobs that seemed great to me because the way I’m surviving with my family right now is 10 times harder. As a good father, a good husband and a good son I’d get my ass across that border and I’d do whatever it takes to get the means to feed my family. I don’t see immigrants as bad people, I see them as survivors.
Because of my experience with immigrants and because I’ve been around them on a daily basis for the last 23 years, I consider Mexicans and Mexico our friends, our best friends. And because our border lies next to our best friends I believe we have the most secure border above any other power nation in the world. We are the only power nation in the world that does not have foreign opposing military bases on the other side of its border. No way for an adversarial military to cross our border by land.
Let’s not forget our Canadian friends to the north who are equally just as good of friends to us as our Mexican friends to the south. Canada isn’t talked about in the border debate as much because we aren’t talking about building a wall along that border. But as with Mexico, we should look for a trade deal with Canada that benefits both countries and most importantly the people of both countries. We should never lose track of our true friends and these are the two best friends a country could ever ask for.
Perhaps a friendly, compassionate border is the reason we have the most secure border in the world. What if we close our border to Mexico? What if we demand trade deals that only benefit America? What if we double down on American companies wanting to build factories in Mexico? What if Mexico opens its borders to Chinese and Russian factories to replace American factories? What if Mexico opens its lands to Chinese and Russian military bases for their economic support? What if there were a Russian military base in Juarez, Mexico facing the American border?
