A local news journalist in Tucson, Arizona was interviewed on Sunday after releasing a book titled, “The Case for Open Borders,” in which he argued the Biden-Harris border policies that allowed more than 12 million illegal immigrants to enter the country in four years are not actually “open borders,” which he suggested would provide a boon to the American economy and “fundamental fairness” to billions of people who were not born United States citizens.
Tucson-based Arizona Luminaria journalist John Washington appeared Saturday on the “Horizonte” program on Arizona PBS to discuss his new book, which was released earlier this year.
Washington called open borders “a fundamental question of fairness,” and said there are “literally billions of people who are consigned to political instability, to persecution, to the onslaught of climate crises, to extreme poverty,” because they are denied the right to immigrate to their destination of choosing by border policies imposed by governments.
“They are not granted that right to move, and if they try to do so, they could be subjected to blockades, in the form of border walls for example. They could be practically be hunted down by armed guards, they can be imprisoned in immigration detention centers and sometimes held there for years, sometimes tortured, sometimes killed and sometimes deported, and there is no other reason for that difference than where someone is born,” said Washington.
The journalist then argued the United States should consider national origin an immutable characteristic immune from discrimination, including along international borders, in the same fashion as gender or race.
Washington told “Horizonte” host Catherine Anaya, “I think that society over the past century or so has taken strides to try to eliminate discrimination based on race, based on gender, sexuality, and yet there’s another immutable characteristic that you are born with and you cannot help at all and yet denies you basic rights, and that is where you are born.”
He also said politicians are guilty of making the southern border into a “political football,” where both sides ignore the plight of those who “either wait” to immigrate legally, “or struggle to get over walls, or find freedom and opportunity.”
The Arizona Limaria publication where Washington writes describes itself as an outlet “for people who want local news that’s a resource for action, equality and democracy.”
It is a nonprofit organization and declares itself nonpartisan, but has adopted third-party goals for “achieving racial/ethnic parity so newsrooms accurately and fairly reflect the communities journalism serves,” and creating an “actively anti-racist” newsroom where “journalists of color feel like they truly belong.”
While Washington largely highlighted humanitarian concerns during his “Horizonte” appearance, the American Sheriff Alliance last year warned the influx of people traveling over the southern border resulted in an increased terrorism threat to the United States, and experts say uncontrolled immigration is responsible for the resurgence of contagious diseases like tuberculosis and polio.
Immigration remains a major political issue with one month until Election Day, and a recent survey found a majority of voters now support former President Donald Trump’s proposal for mass deportations of illegal immigrants.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Todd Miller” and “Build Bridges not Walls: The Case for Open Borders” by Todd Miller.
