By Laurie Bergner

Recently, we have all watched, horrified, as refugees from such war-torn countries as Syria and Afghanistan have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean by boat, many dying in the process. Now they have been marching across Europe, seeking wealthier countries like Germany, to settle in, at least for now. Hungary has tried to stop them, putting up walls, herding them into refugee camps. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, said, “If Europe allows a competition of cultures, then the Christians will lose. These are the facts. The only way out for those who want to preserve Europe as a Christian culture is not to let more Muslims in!”So here’s the real fear: Europe doesn’t want to let these refugees in because they are Muslim.

The U.S. is bound by both international and our own domestic law to open its doors to those who have a “well-founded fear of persecution” on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

We may be horrified to see Hungary’s inhumane and hateful treatment of these poor refugees, but how do we compare?

Over the years, I’m afraid we haven’t done much better. Although we have admitted many political refugees since World War II, we have also sent countless numbers of people back to their countries of origin only to be jailed, tortured and even killed.

During the Great Depression, we deported a million Mexicans, 60% of whom were citizens, calling it “repatriation.” To justify this illegal expulsion, we boasted we were “keeping families together,” as we deported children who, born in the U.S., were citizens. It’s the same plan as that espoused by Trump today. During WW II, we sent Jewish refugees back to certain death in Nazi Germany.

During the Reagan years, the government denied 97% of Salvadoran and 99% of Guatemalan asylum applications, in spite of the fact that there were civil wars raging in both countries. In the early 1990’s, President Bush ordered the Coast Guard to forcibly return more than 20,000 men, women and children to Haiti, from where they were fleeing tyranny, prompting one federal judge to accuse the U.S. Government of returning refugees “to the jaws of political persecution, terror, death and uncertainty when it has contracted not to do so.”

Just last year, thousands of women and children came here fleeing violence in Central America. Many are still being held in terrible detention camps, treated as criminals, and many have been deported. This is against both our own and international laws, which protect people fleeing violence in their countries.

Too often, fear and hatred predominate over our better instincts. We fear losing jobs to immigrants, being overrun by people different from us, letting in criminals and terrorists among those who come in. Yet, if we look at our history, so many times we feared all those things, as with the Vietnam boat people, and the Muslims from Bosnia and Kosovo. Yet, our fears were not realized. Many returned home when peace returned to their countries, and those who stayed have assimilated and become productive Americans. Our history is that of taking in refugees and immigrants, as well as hating them and refusing them refuge. On this Constitution and Citizenship Day, if we abhor Hungary’s treatment of the pitiful refugees, we should look in the mirror at the hate still alive in our country.

Laurie Bergner is a clinical psychologist in private practice, working with individual adults, families and couples. She also works with the nonpartisan League of Women Voters, helping organize candidates forums, educational programs, and many issues in the field of law and justice. She has received many recognitions in both fields, including YWCA’s Women of Distinction in the Professions, Leaguer of the Year, LWV Special Project Awards, and the LWV of Illinois’s prestigious Carrie Chapman Catt award. Laurie has a wonderful husband and two grown children – also wonderful. She loves biking in the countryside, reading, and traveling.

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