Imagine being forced to go to work every day with out receiving a pay check. This is what 800,000 federal workers have had to face in the United States. The partial government shut down is heading into its second month, making it the longest government shutdown in America’s history.
Without receiving their pay, government employees are not able to pay for their mortgages, feed their children, pay for gas to get to and from work and buy their everyday necessities. Many of these employees fear losing their homes. It is a tough situation for some families because they were already living paycheck-to-paycheck.
Airports have been over-crowded because many of the unpaid employees have been calling in sick to work. According to USA Today, many government monuments and parks are not in the best shape because the trash is not being collected.
People depend on government assistance, such as SNAP, to feed their families. The 40 million SNAP recipients received their February benefits in January because they will not be receiving any benefits as far as the shutdown lasts. This has led people into such fear that they have been applying to other jobs.
Just because some people are not employed by the government does not mean they are not affected by the shutdown. The FDA has stopped checking some of the food that has been stocked on shelves, which can later affect our health.
Shutting down the government is not a way to solve the president’s problem; it is only making things worse. If this shutdown does not end soon it is likely that people are going to experience homelessness, starvation and the crime rates will be likely to rise.
Through all of this frustration there are many citizens who want to help out. Churches and small businesses have been fundraising money and giving out daily necessities to give to those who are being affected.
The United States is a nation built on immigration. We need to learn how to embrace people from different ethnicities and cultures. If we really want unity and security for a better future a wall will only divide us.
There are bigger issues going on in our country that we need to focus on rather than building a wall. Building the wall can only make matters worse for the United States and it is not the proper way to alleviate the issues surrounding the southern border. We are making enemies with our neighbors instead of creating relationships with them.
As a country, we have to look at the root causes and try to help solve them. The people who live along the southern border are facing real life situations such as extreme hunger, climate change and gang violence.
For many people, there is essentially no way to come to the US unless you fit into narrow categories. In addition, many people now at the border or not migrants, they are refugees seeking asylum. They are not “illegal.” They are following the legal process but the government is often denying them their legal rights.
On Saturday, Jan. 19 President Trump addressed the nation about immigration and potentially ending the shutdown. According to CNN, the president discussed his thoughts on swearing in five new American citizens and the impact it had on him. He still wants to invest in creating the steel barrier on the southern border but also invest to get more border security agents.
Once he has a down payment to hire 2,700 border agents and to rebuild the rest of the wall he will begin to reopen the government. Trump also mentions the realization he has about our crumbling immigration system and wants to fix it. There is always a catch. Once he gets the funding then that is when he will begin to reopen the government.
As American citizens we should help those who are affected by the shutdown. They work hard for what they do and to not get paid must be devastating.
