The Midwest tells the truth: Immigration isn’t our biggest problem by far | Opinion

Reasonable people can argue on either side of this country’s debate on immigration reform and enforcement. What is fueling this debate, however, has almost nothing to do with immigration.

I was born and raised in Kansas City — the “to the prairies” part of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” I’ve lived in a dozen other cities since, and in a handful of other countries, but this is the place where I’m from. This is the place where I learned who I am.

The Midwest isn’t flashy. It’s not supposed to be. It’s sturdy. Unassuming. Under the radar. The Midwest is quiet. But the Midwest gets the job done. The Midwest is kind. And the Midwest is honest. The Midwest is as America as America gets. The Midwest tells the truth.

• Undocumented immigrants are about half as likely to commit violent crimes as native-born Americans.
• More than 90% of drug seizure events involve only U.S. citizens.
• More than 86% of convicted fentanyl traffickers are U.S. citizens. Fewer than 9% are undocumented immigrants.
• Undocumented immigrants do not have access to means-tested welfare programs, except emergency Medicaid.

In a country of 340 million people, there is always going to be fraud. There is always going to be crime, and there are always going to be those who seek to scapegoat rather than to educate themselves about the real issues.

Immigration is not, and never has been, among the Top 10 — or even 50 — problems this country faces. It’s just the one people think they can solve.

Both political parties have been aware of this fact for a long time, and that awareness has guided immigration policy on both sides.

They don’t want to solve an issue. They want to convince you that they’re the ones who can. They want your votes.

Until fairly recently, that was just the reality of American politics: pitting one side against the other in an attempt to distract from the failings of those in charge.

It’s turned into something else.

Obama deportations didn’t stoke unrest, fear

The current administration is installing an unregulated secret police force and deploying it against its citizens under the cover of immigration enforcement.

For those of you who cite liberal approval of Barack Obama’s deportation numbers as evidence of “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” ask yourselves: How was that administration able to deport so many people without breaking the law, without causing unnecessary violence and unrest, and without striking fear into the hearts of every citizen of this country?

If deportation of undocumented immigrants were the goal, training would be important. If deportation of undocumented immigrants were the goal, masks would not be necessary. If deportation of undocumented immigrants were the goal, native-born and naturalized citizens of this country would have no reason to feel afraid.

Deportation of undocumented immigrants is not the goal. It is only the means. Dictatorial control over an unwitting population is the goal.

And this administration is not far from its accomplishment.

If that’s what you support — if the country you long to live in is an English-only-speaking, “whites-above-all” society — then good luck to you, and may the chips fall where they will. I don’t agree with your perspective, but I appreciate your honesty.

If some part of that narrative doesn’t fit for you — if you’re not a fan of lefty woke nonsense but, at the same time, you feel that undertrained masked thugs harassing innocent civilians doesn’t reflect the values instilled in our country’s constitution — then now is the time to speak up.

We can sit around the kitchen table and debate the virtues of gun control and the Second Amendment. We can talk about same-sex marriage and the Bible. We can talk about abortion. We can talk about a lot of things, like we used to do in a country that’s too big for one opinion. In pluralist civilization, no one is entirely right, and no one is entirely wrong.

This country was built on the notion that people who don’t agree with one another can, nonetheless, peacefully coexist — that there is more that unites us than divides us, that we can learn from our detractors, that we can reach for something beyond our default cynicism.

But first, we have to relocate our humanity.

Politics are corrupt.

All of us are frustrated.

We’ve seen this movie before.

We know how it ends.

Maybe we should all get up before they roll the credits.

James Rudnick is a playwright and screenwriter who recently completed his first novel. He lives in Kansas City.