The New Slave Trade

In 1935, Jorge Luis Borges published his first book, a collection of quasi-historical events entitled "Historia Universal de la Infamia."(Universal History of Infamy). One of the quasi historical stories was titled, "El Atroz Redentor Lazaro Morrell." (The Dread Redeemer Lazarus Morrell). The story, as Borges told it, dealt with the history of John Murrell, a man supposedly involved in helping slaves in the American South escape to freedom in the antebellum era. His method was as follows: He would clandestinely approach a slave and offer to both help the slave escape and start with a little money. He would offer to assist the slave to escape, wait until the slave owner posted a reward for the return of the slave, then return the slave and collect the reward. He would then help the slave escape again and split the reward with the slave, providing the resources to start life as a freeman in the North. This was more or less, supposedly, a variant of the Underground railway.

The reality was that once Morrell had his money, he would help the slave escape a second time, but rather than split the reward and let the former slave go his way, Morrell would simply murder the slave and keep the money for himself. Since no one expected to ever see the slave again, once escaped to a life of freedom elsewhere, suspicion would not be aroused by the slave's disappearance. Morrell's scheme apparently was successful for a time. After or around the time of the Battle of Vicksburg, however, liberated slaves sought him out, having become aware of his evil deeds, and killed him (that is not verifiable historically).

To listen to our woke leftists (pretty much everyone in the Democrat Party), with their open borders agenda, they are running the modern equivalent of the Underground Railroad, assisting the impoverished, oppressed, and endangered in every part of the world to make their way to freedom in America.

That would be nice if that were the case. Unfortunately, since it requires massive violation of federal immigration law to accomplish this end, the Left has to partner with criminal organizations, eg, the Mexican cartels, to escort the oppressed to freedom. That requires funds that many of the oppressed of the world do not possess. So they become something akin to indentured servants of the cartel once they arrive in America, obligated, on penalty of death for themselves or their loved ones, to pay the cartels the price of their freedom. The cartels efficiently arrange for that repayment by requiring young women to work in the sex trade to pay off the bill. Or men and women, young or old, to transport fentanyl for the cartels. Others get jobs, using counterfeit green cards or social security cards, accepting low wages (in place of American citizens who would have to be paid minimum wage) that are reduced further by Social Security and Medicare withholding, money they will never see again. This money then goes to support the wealthiest cohort on the planet (American retirees) and helps provide funds that offset the deficits in those programs, allowing politicians to defer cuts or reforms to those programs. Even public institutions in non-sanctuary states and cities (ostensibly) hire those individuals, as evidenced by the University of Georgia's sudden discovery that the brother of the murderer of Laken Riley was working at the University using a fake green card (wonder how many others are doing the same, in Georgia and other states).

It is also clear that many American NGOs (see the reporting of Rachel Campos-Duffey) are getting paid big bucks from taxpayer funds to collaborate with the cartels in human trafficking. Catholic Charities, for example, acquires hotels near the border, removes all signage, and then gets paid triple the going rate by the federal government for rooming illegal immigrants as they are handed off from the cartels, processed, and released into the country, to go who knows where, to do who knows what.

I would allege that the woke moral high ground claimed by the Left, as the new version of the Underground Railway, is much more akin to the methods of Lazaro el Redentor.