To the Editor:
In “A Migration Juggernaut Is Headed for Europe” (Economic Scene, Sept. 16), Eduardo Porter makes a persuasive economic argument for Europe to be more welcoming to immigrants fleeing Africa and the Middle East instead of erecting barriers and fences to those escaping. But there is also the moral argument.
Recalling the Holocaust, one of its survivors, Henny Wenkart, a child at the time, was quoted a while ago in The Los Angeles Times as saying: “What people don’t understand is that at the beginning, you could get out. But nobody would let us in. Everyone could’ve been saved. Everyone.”
Morality is always easier, and clearer, in retrospect, but that’s not when it’s needed. It was needed then, at the time. And it is needed now.
IRA GLASSER
New York
The writer was executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1978 to 2001.
Note from KBJ: How many people will you be taking in, Mr Glasser? Put your money where your mouth is.
