Letters

To solve a problem, the critical step is defining it. What are the root causes of our immigration crisis?

1) Lack of economic opportunity, especially in Central and South America and Mexico, but all over the world, in reality.

2) Political unrest fueled by authoritarian regimes, or by religious fanaticism, or any combination thereof.

3) Destruction caused by repeated and worsening climate issues: floods, typhoons, hurricanes, fires, drought.

4) Global connection via internet to all corners of the world. The have-nots can see what others do have.

5) The illegal drug trade, closely related to item 1 but also just laziness, greed and maybe even foreign policy.

6) Business owners in the United States want cheap(er) labor to maximize profits and/or fill positions that current citizens do not want.

7) They come by land, by sea, by air to a border hundreds of miles long.

8) That lady holding a torch saying, “Send me your hungry …”

9) Our pleasant addiction to cheap food.

ICE raids collect people and throw them out, away, back. Clearly, this does not match any of the inputs. Worse yet is paying poverty-stricken countries to take those collected by ICE. Last I knew, selling people for profit was called human trafficking, our new euphemism for slavery. Buyer and seller are equally complicit. Again, no match to any input, and in fact likely to exacerbate items 1, 2, 3.

Next week, I will send my list of ideas that might truly solve the problem. I challenge everyone reading to send their ideas.

Amy Paradise

Hampton Bays