Letter: We all can support immigrants

Graphic by Lori Deaton

We know that in Nazi Germany, there were some Germans who hid Jews (like Anne Frank and her family [in the Netherlands]) in their homes to keep them safe from the Gestapo, concentration camps and death. Perhaps we have said to ourselves, “If I’d been in Germany then, I would have taken in a family and protected them.” Or we have shaken our heads sadly at the many other Germans who went about their lives and did nothing to avert the Holocaust.

Today, our president and Congress are imprisoning people desperately trying to cross our border to find a means of existence. Concentration camps is not too strong a term: People forced to drink water out of toilets, not permitted to shower, young children separated from their families, forced to sleep on concrete floors, sexually abused and utterly traumatized. They are fleeing from climate and economic catastrophes induced by North Americans’ policies and lifestyles. And the genocidal abuses continue unabated, with our tacit consent.

Here’s a different idea: What if some [local] hotel owners, Airbnb owners and people with an extra bedroom or two decided to welcome a few families who are at the border to stay for free and raised the funds to transport them here? Restaurant and store owners would be asked to donate food and other necessities. Businesses and individuals would be asked to offer them decently paid work. Soon they would be integrated into the community. All those donating space and services would be honored for their generosity. It could become a movement that would spread to other cities, an example of kindness in the name of our common humanity.

“For I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me. …I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me!” — Matthew 25:35.

— Cathy Holt
Asheville

Editor’s note: Holt notes that she can be reached at cathyfholt@gmail.com.

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6 thoughts on “Letter: We all can support immigrants

  1. Lulz

    The disconnect of Holt is amazing. No where does she contemplate that those illegals are one of the major causes of low wages. And the biggest slap in the face is to ask low wage employees who are affected by open borders to give even more. Irony of it all is those who claim to support labor, living wages, equality are the biggest obstacles to achieving it. Simply because the are unaffected by it.

  2. K Smith

    Hey that would be great…but can we take care of the homeless vets, single moms with kids in dire need and others here in our own town first. If we do that first, someone might be willing to reach outside our country to help someone in need. As long as we have our own local neglected, why would we do that??

  3. Curious

    Are there local churches (or other groups) that are sponsoring immigrant families? Is there a formal/legal procedure for doing this?

    • Mary Brumo

      Yes, there is a legal way to sponsor/remove from detention people who are seeking asylum. Of course, it’s legal for people escaping violence and the threat of death in their own countries to seek asylum here. Here is just one of the several websites that can explain how to do this. Thanks for your interest. http://saldef.org/news/faq-asylum-seeker-sponsorship/

  4. Phillip C Williams

    Why do people like this writer continually try to draw parallels between the current situation at the border and the Holocaust? The United States is trying to sort out thousands of people who are trying to ENTER our Nation legally and illegally – with each case having its own variables and unique situations.

    On the other hand, the Nazis were rounding up Jews in Germany and the occupied territories – preventing them from leaving – so they could systematically murder them….and this wasn’t restricted to Jews – they also targeted communists, labor unionists, Freemasons, Catholics, Russians, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people, those accused of sheltering fugitives or being connected to resistance movements, etc etc etc…..

    Democracy may die in darkness, but it looks like perspective, balanced thinking and common sense die right out in the open daylight….

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