Houston attorney Patrick F. McCann paints a bleak picture of life in Mexico and various Central American countries to rationalize the flood of immigrants entering the country illegally and overwhelming America's southern border. According to McCann, these nations are so dysfunctional that children and elderly mothers are left to suffer poverty, savage civil war and brutal gang violence.
He then goes on to ask what he assumes is a clever rhetorical question: If Americans found themselves in similar circumstances, wouldn't they flee their country for a place more peaceful and prosperous?
I believe Americans have proven that the answer to that question is a resounding "No." Throughout the Revolutionary War, America's Civil War, two world wars, one Cold War and the Great Depression, it has never been our habit as Americans to run away to some place safer, and under no circumstances would it be considered honorable to abandon our children to the tender mercies of human smugglers.
I'm more interested in questions that McCann does not ask: 1) What is so wrong with countries like Mexico and Honduras that so many of their citizens just up and leave? 2) Why don't these immigrants stay and fight to make their homelands better places to live?
The fact that McCann and other so-called "open borders" advocates focus instead on mass immigration means that misery, poverty, war and gang violence will be the lot of the tens of millions who remain behind.
We need to address the causes of the problem, not the symptoms. In the meantime, taking in an endless stream of refugees only delays the reforms that could make these countries decent places to live.
Pete Smith, Houston
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In "The courage to cross", Houston attorney Patrick F. McCann paints a bleak picture of life in Mexico and various Central American countries to rationalize the flood of illegal immigrants overwhelming America's southern border. According to McCann, these nations are so dysfunctional that children and elderly mothers are left to suffer poverty, savage civil war and brutal gang violence.
He then goes on to ask what he assumes is a clever rhetorical question: If Americans found themselves in similar circumstances, wouldn't they flee their country for a place more peaceful and prosperous?
I believe Americans have proven that the answer to that question is a resounding "No". Throughout the Revolutionary War, America's civil war, two world wars, one Cold War and the Great Depression, it has never been our habit as Americans to run away to some place safer, and under no circumstances would it be considered honorable to abandon our children to the tender mercies of human smugglers.
I'm more interested in questions that McCann does not ask: 1) What is so wrong with countries like Mexico and Honduras that so many of their citizens just up and leave? 2) Why don't these immigrants stay and fight to make their homelands better places to live?
Anybody with an ounce of humanity would wonder why our northern neighbor Canada is a peaceful, functioning and prosperous democracy, and they would focus like a laser beam on helping our neighbors to the South duplicate the Canadian experience. The fact that McCann and other so-called "open borders" advocates focus instead on mass immigration means that misery, poverty, war and gang violence will be the lot of the tens of millions who remain behind.
We need to address the causes of the problem, not the symptoms. In the meantime, taking in an endless stream of refugees only delays the reforms that could make these countries decent places to live.
Pete Smith
Houston, TX
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