The immigrants we choose

There was a story in the Journal this weekend about an extraordinarily successful program the US has undertaken to admit Ukrainian war refugees. Red tape has been slashed, partnerships with NGOs forged and, surprise surprise, 85,000 have been admitted to our fair shores. My first inclination was to note how quickly we can get things sorted out for some white immigrants.

Then I remembered to go back and check on the status of immigration from Afghanistan. As of February 2022, the International Rescue Committee reported that we had let in 76,000 Afghan refugees. Also not horrible.

So the principal seems to be that if the refugees come from a place where there has been a conflagration considered important in a geopolitically strategically important struggle, and particularly if we feel like we ourselves have put people in harm's way, we'll open our arms.

But for people who've just had their countries destabilized by decades of ill rule, considerably complicated by our people's insatiable desire for cocaine, heroin, petroleum and the like, well, tough luck. It would be great if we could get ourselves organized to curb our appetites and provide more constant and effective support for democratic governance in Latin America so that people would be a little less inclined to flee in the first place. And then welcome more of those that come for strictly economic reasons. Lord knows it's good for our cuisine and cultural life, as witnessed by the endless series of billboards for fried chicken, burgers and gun shows along our interstates. 

If we could do more of those things, the Global South would be more inclined to support us in UN General Assembly votes condemning aggressors like Putin.