Immigrant Hearts Challenges the Demonic Label

It's become the favorite pastime of many in this country to demonize undocumented immigrants and other foreign nationals who try to enter this country without permission. The "illegal immigrant" label is more popular today than "The Scarlet Letter" was in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and it unfairly fosters the notion that those entering this country without permission are, at best, common criminals and, at worst, subhuman beings.

The recent act of Jesus Manuel Cordova puts that notion to the test.

Mr. Cordova was entering the United States without permission by treking through the Southern Arizona desert when he came upon a 9-year old American boy who, with his mother, had been involved in a car accident. The mother died at the scene. Mr. Cordova tossed his own self-interest aside, stayed with the boy and comforted the youngster throughout the night until help arrived the next morning.

It behooves this society to recognize that those who seek a better life here have hearts too...and very often they are filled with the greatest of human kindness. Instead of dehumanizing them, perhaps it's time we return the favor!