Oct 6, 2019 3 min read

President Trump’s frequent characterizations of Mexican migrants as being murderers, rapists and drug runners are by now notorious.

And they’re nothing new, according to the Rev. John Fife, a Presbyterian minister, human rights advocate and Washington & Jefferson College alumnus. He pointed out in a talk at the college last week that the Ku Klux Klan that was revived a century ago put Mexican migrants in its crosshairs, along with blacks and new arrivals from the southern part of Europe.

“That sizable number of people who think that immigration is a threat hasn’t changed,” said Fife.

Fife’s discussion, “Border Security: Testing Our Basic Values,” was the culmination of a three-day visit Fife made to campus, from which he graduated in 1962 after majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry. However, he said Tuesday, it was courses he took in philosophy, the humanities and other subjects that led him to pursue the life of a minister, and he has become most well-known as a fierce advocate for the rights of undocumented immigrants at the southern border and the reform of our border security policies.

Over the last two years, students at W&J have traveled to Arizona to work with Fife. They have undertaken an extensive exploration of border policy by talking with humanitarians, law enforcement officials, indigenous peoples and others. Due to the escalating number of deaths in the desert due to border crossings over the last several years, Fife became a co-founder of Tucson Samaritans and No More Deaths to provide humanitarian aid to migrants.

In the 1980s, Fife co-founded the Sanctuary Movement, an initiative that saw more than 500 churches and synagogues providing protection for Central American refugees fleeing violence in their homelands.

Although Trump and the Republican Party are most closely associated with hard-line immigration policies, both Democrats and Republicans have been trying to show toughness on immigration over the last couple of decades, Fife explained. And all of them have failed, in Fife’s estimation.

“Human rights have been violated by Democrats and Republicans alike,” he said. Policymakers deliberately wanted migrants to die in the desert, so those deaths would serve as a deterrent to other migrants seeking illegal entry, Fife noted. It’s estimated that more than 8,000 people have died in the desert around the southern border over the last 20 years or so.

“The border enforcement strategy is a violation of human rights and international law,” Fife said. “It’s a devastating failure of principles and values.”

And it has also not worked.

“The Southwest border has never been less secure than it is at this moment,” he added.

Still, Fife is optimistic that views and policies will change. The number of Americans who are hostile to migrants is “a minority of the people in the United States,” he said.

“There’s a substantial element of hope,” Fife said.