A personal plea for humanity at the US-Mexico border

In this powerful, personal talk, author and academic Juan Enriquez shares stories from inside the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border, bringing this often-abstract debate back down to earth -- and showing what you can do every day to create a sense of belonging for immigrants. "This isn't about kids and borders," he says. "It's about us. This is about who we are, who we the people are, as a nation and as individuals."

This one's personal.

I know what it's like
to have the government say,

"We're going to kill you in the morning."

I know what it's like
to leave a country on six hours' notice

and land on someone's couch.

Because of that, I wrote a book

on why countries do well
and why they don't.

Let me summarize 250 pages.

Countries have to be compassionate,

they have to be kind,

they have to be smart,
they have to be brave.

Want to know what doesn't work?

When you govern through fear
and you govern through cruelty,

it just doesn't work.

You can play Genghis Khan for a while,

you can play Stalin for a while,

you can play Pinochet for a while.

It does not work in the long run.

And it doesn't work in the long run

because to govern
through fear and cruelty,

you have to create a division.

You have to take big chunks
of the country and convince them

that they're not like them.

That they shouldn't associate with them,

they shouldn't talk to them.

That those people are nasty,

those people are criminals,
those people are rapists.

And the country is in danger
because of them.

And if you spend millions of dollars
doing that in your country,

you will make enemies abroad,

and you will create divisions within.

And that has consequences.

Three quarters of the flags
and the borders and the anthems

around the United Nations today,

they were not there a few decades ago.

Those lines that are there today,

those flags were created
because somebody said,

"the Scotts are not like us,"

"the Welsh are not like us,"

"the Basques are not like us,"

"the northern Italians are not like us,"

"the Muslims are not like us,"

the blacks, the whites, the Christians.

You create "us versus them" ...

you destroy nations.

Part of the problem
from creating us versus them

is it's hard to do.

What you have to do

is you have to make people
believe absurdities.

And once people believe absurdities,

then they start to commit atrocities.

That's the dynamic of this thing.

You can't create "us versus them" --

you can't have the massacres
you had in Rwanda,

you can't have the massacres
you had in Yugoslavia --

unless if you create this dynamic.

Let me summarize
current immigration policy.

Let's deter "Them"

by being as cruel as we can possibly be,

and let's target their children.

They are going after the children.

You have US lawyers arguing
that kids do not need

soap or hugs or showers,

adult help or a release date.

Somebody gets pulled over
for a broken tail light,

who's worked here for 20 years,

gets thrown into jail,

maybe for life,

with no legal representation.

The terrorists that blew up
the World Trade Center get lawyers.

These kids, these parents,
they don't get lawyers.

Governments are telling

some of the most desperate,
hurt people on earth,

"I took your child, pay me 800 dollars
for a DNA test before you get it back."

Three-year-olds are appearing in court.

Look, we've all watched these
courtroom dramas.

And it's exciting,

because the wise judge sits up there,

and the defense lawyer attacks

and the prosecutor counterattacks,

and then you figure out
how it's going to happen.

I want you to understand
what is happening right now.

Prosecutor's there --
it's the tough prosecutor.

Accusing, attacking,
on behalf of we the people.

The judge is up there, Judge Muckety-muck,

with his black robes,

and he's questioning the defendant

from up there.

And the defendant is three years old

and the eyes don't reach
the side of the table.

The defendant does not speak the language.

The earphones for the translator
have fallen off the defendant's head,

because there are no headphones
for three-year-olds in US courtrooms,

because they are not supposed
to defend themselves.

This makes a mockery of justice,

it makes a mockery
of the prosecution system,

it makes a mockery
of who we are as a nation.

These are absurdities.

These are atrocities.

This is unbelievable.

And we're looking
at a bunch of statistics,

but I want you to understand,

this is happening to the housekeeper
who brought up your kids.

This is happening to the gardener
who took care of your house.

This is happening to the guy
who washed the dishes

in the fancy restaurant
you went to last week.

This is happening to the people
who deliver the newspaper in the mornings.

This is your community,

these are the people who have lived
side by side with you.

Treated you well,

treated you with respect,

taken care of your kids,

taken care of your grandparents.

This is Luis, this is Laura,

this is Jaime.

This isn't some abstract,

"Oh, it's happening at the border" --

this is happening
in our community, right now.

And the danger in this stuff

is once you start normalizing
absurdities and atrocities,

people think that
those instruments are legitimate.

So you get school boards
sending out letters like this:

"Dear Parent,

because your kid owes
lunch money to the cafeteria,

the result may be that your child
will be taken away

and put in foster care."

This is going out from school boards

because people think,

"Well, that seems to be
an instrument of deterrence."

When you board an airplane,

before kids, before first class,

soldiers in uniform board.

Some of them are immigrants.

Here's a contract: join the army,

serve your term, be honorably discharged,

get citizenship.

We are rescinding those contracts

after they have been signed.

And if those soldiers
are killed in action,

we are deporting their wives,
and sometimes, their children.

These are the people who protect us.

These are the people that we honor.

These are the brave.

And this is how we're treating them.

These are not the people
who cross the border illegally.

Once you start allowing
this kind of behavior,

it normalizes into a society,
and it rips the society apart.

Countries are built on the hard work
and grit of immigrants;

we are all immigrants.

We just came at different times.

Fifty-five percent
of this country's main businesses,

the most successful businesses
in this country, the unicorns,

are built by people who came
as foreign students or as immigrants,

and they're the founders
or the cofounders.

Well, here's what's happened
over the last three years

to the best brains in the world.

Forty-two percent of them
did not get visas

or chose not to get visas.

This is how you wipe out an economy.

This isn't about kids and borders.

It's about us.

This is about who we are,
who we the people are,

as a nation and as individuals.

This is not an abstract debate.

A lot of us like to think

if we had been back
when Hitler was rising to power,

we would have been out in the street,

we would have opposed him,
we would have stopped Mengele.

A lot of us like to think,

if we had been around during the '60s,

we would have been
with the Freedom Riders.

We would have been
at that bridge in Selma.

Well, guess what?

Here's your chance.

It's now.

And as you're thinking about this stuff,

it's not just the giant acts,

it's not just go and block the bridge

or chain yourself to something.

It's what you do in your daily lives.

The Harvard Art Museum just opened a show

on how artists think about immigration
and building a home somewhere else.

And people come out of that show
and they're pretty shaken.

There was a blank wall at the end.

And the curators did something
that usually doesn't happen --

they improvised.

They drew four lines,
and put in two words:

"I belong."

So you come out of this exhibit,

and you can take a picture in front of it.

I can't tell you the impact
that has on people --

I watched people come out of this,

and some of them sat
in front of that picture,

took a picture, and they had
a great, big grin on their face,

and some people just had tears.

Some people hugged
and brought in strangers,

others brought in their family.

Small acts of kindness
go a long, long, long way.

There is pain going on in your community

like you cannot believe.

So next time you're with a cab driver
who may be one of "Them,"

according to certain people,

give that person an extra five bucks.

Next time you see a hotel maid,

thank her and tip her double.

Next time you see your gardener,

you see your nanny,

you see somebody like this,

give them a great, big hug,
and tell them they belong.

Make them feel like they belong.

It's time for big policies,

but it's also time
for big acts of kindness.

Because we have to reclaim who we are,

we have to reclaim this nation.

(Voice breaking) And we cannot sit there

and watch this shit going on.

This has got to stop,
it's got to stop now.

Thank you.

(Applause)