Delmarva Today 5-21-21

Todd Miller is back with Harold Wilson to talk about his recent book, Build Bridges, Not Walls and how we might manage our borders in a more human way. Todd begins his book with the following story:

I see a man on the edge of the road. He looks both desperate and ragged and waves his arms for me to pull over my car. We are in southern Arizona, about twenty miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border…. As I stop, the man rushes to my side of the car. Speaking in Spanish, he tells me his name is Juan Carlos. He tells me he is from Guatemala. He gulps down the water I offer him and asks if I can give him a ride to the nearest town.

Parked on the side of the road, Juan Carlos asking me for the ride, awareness of our fractured world comes crashing back. I can’t see the agents, surveillance cameras, and sensors, but I know they are all around. I can feel them. Above, one of many drones in the U.S. arsenal could be documenting the moment and streaming data about our location and movements. Agents are armed not only with weapons and technology, but with laws. One such law forbids me from giving Juan Carlos a ride. Doing so would further his unauthorized presence in the United States. If caught, I could be nailed with a federal crime, a felony. In essence, I could get prison time for showing kindness to a stranger.

But wouldn’t it be a crime to leave somebody there, knowing that doing so could lead to their death?

What a dilemma for a moral person this is. And yet as climate change and other issues exacerbate the relocation of human populations, this is exactly the quandary we have created for ourselves. Click here to listen to Todd discuss this issue.