The grave danger is to disown our neighbors. When we do so, we deny their humanity and our own without realizing it.  — Pope Francis

Immigration seems like a big fat litmus test. At the root of that test is the way immigration brings us face to face with “the other” and with the illusion of separateness (the Big Lie).

We see the convergence of environmental, economic, and political issues, and how this convergence undermines the universal human needs of so many people, setting them in motion to seek the simple basics of life. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

Immigration challenges the status quo on many levels, including our feigned innocence. It’s grist for the mill of our collective journey toward psychological, ecological and spiritual maturity, and it’s a messy, awkward trip, uncomfortable by design.

The official response is “prevention through deterrence” — more militarization, weapons, walls, surveillance, arrests, prisons. To the thriving Military Industrial Complex, we now add the vast and ever growing Homeland Security apparatus. The money being sucked in  is huge, there is no true national security benefit, and the inherent injustice and dehumanization is extreme. Cruelty is the policy!

Cracks and Opportunities

It’s a system and way of thinking that has no future. Psychological walls that underpin physical and policy barriers to  a life-affirming future can weakening or strengthen. But all walls have their cracks and will eventually fall.

 Where are the cracks, the openings where the light can come in? Nonviolent Communication teaches that all human behavior revolves around meeting universal needs. This is a lens that humanizes the whole thing and can change the whole dynamic. I leads me to be curious about the needs that are in play, and the varying strategies being employed for meeting them.

I have a restorative justice vision I want to put into practice and I need to hold the big picture. I want to keep my heart open and  honor the evolutionary process — the evolution of human consciousness that so defines this moment. The facilitator in me wants to know how the current system is working for the rank and file and mid-level managers of Homeland Security and Border Patrol. What are their met and unmet needs in all of this? Are they okay with the harm, the litigation, the blatant cruelty and injustice? If there are those willing to admit that the system takes a toll on them too, perhaps there are some small openings for restorative dialogue?

Can opportunities be creating for stepping back to see a bigger picture, to share experiences and views in such a way that people can really hear each other? Just that much. Can small cracks widen then? Can we create opportunities for responsibility taking, for moving in the direction of compassion and care, for transformational shifts in priorities? Is there hope for humanity if we don’t? These are the kinds of questions I want to explore. I know that if given a chance, people can surprise me and be so much more than what I had judged them to be.

It’s a long-term vision for sure, a long-shot probably. There is the very real possibility of continuing with separation—us and them, war and wall mentality, political quagmire, fear. It is certainly possibly that here in the Great Unravelling we will continue down the path of collective suicide. One thing seems clear: We will continue to come face to face with the consequences of our actions and with real flesh and blood people, lots of them, looking us in the face, challenging us to welcome the stranger.

Photo credit: Denis Poroy/AP