Dear Americans,

People aren’t desperate to get into your country because it is the greatest nation on the planet. They aren’t risking perilous journeys on rafts or trains of death, traversing rivers and tumultuous seas, through rainforests and scorching deserts, past criminal gangs, because America is some shining star.

They are trying to escape the threat of death and a misery that has been caused, in large part, by ruthless, decades-long, economic, geopolitical and environmental policies your government, at the behest of corporations, has implemented throughout the Global South. Policies which have decimated their livelihoods, robbed them of their resources, destroyed their ecosystems, and propped up ruthless regimes that rule them with terror and brutality.

Seriously, do you really think most people would want to go voluntarily to a nation where there is no universal healthcare, homelessness is ubiquitous, gun violence is rampant, racism is normalized, and immigrants are demonized by the press and at least half of the political class? You are the only option they have left. Think of it as a choice between the lesser of two evils.

Sincerely, Reality.

Kenn Orphan, May 2023

*Photo is of migrants via the New York Times.