Humanitarian Crisis Compels Conservatives to Berate Child Refugees

If there was any question of how deeply the conservative party base hates minorities, we got a very good look at their ugliness in Murrieta, CA. In a scene reminiscent of Selma, Alabama, circa 1965, nativist conservatives came out in a xenophobic rage to sling slurs and hate speech at buses filled with child refugees and their mothers.

In a sad and shameful turn of events, the town mayor (Alan Long) took to social media to call upon protesters to show up en masse, his police force ushered the buses straight toward the crowd stopping them, setting the stage for the most disgusting scene of coordinated public hate in recent memory. The crowd, spurred by hatred, berated and scowled with furrowed brows, wagging index fingers and thrusting vile placards, until the buses of child refugees and their mothers were turned away. Afterward, Mayor Long said he 'couldn't be more proud'.

This is how conservatives treat child refugees in a humanitarian crisis. With hate and bigotry, pure and simple.

Unless you are a Native American, you are an immigrant here. We came to Jamestown, we came to Ellis Island, we came to the South Carolina Lowcountry on slave ships. We come on rafts and on airplanes; with coyotes and with work visas. We come with ambition and with drive. Immigrants are not and have never been a burden, they continue to represent an influx of talent, purchasing power, tax revenues... America is the melting pot. That is our heritage.

'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'

It doesn't say 'give me your wealthy, your athletes, your college graduates...'

And if American history and heritage is not enough - how about Jesus?

Jesus said repeatedly to help the poor. He told ambitious believers to sell their belongings, and give it all to the poor (Matthew 19). Jesus said the most important commandments are to love god and your neighbor (Matthew 22). He said that to be like him you must feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit the jailed, and take in strangers (Matthew 25).

Leviticus 24 says 'You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the Lord your God.', and Leviticus 19 says 'And if a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. But the stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.'

There is no such thing as an illegal person. 'Illegals' is a bigoted slur. Humans are also not aliens, humans are humans.

We are not savages. We will not deport 12 million people who are as American as you or I. They need citizenship, not hate.