The Duty to Educate the Public

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Thomas Barth
April 11, 2025

I recently had the benefit of attending a meeting with missionary priests and a social worker who work with immigrant families at or near our southern border in California and Arizona, people who are seeking asylum from horrendous situations in their countries or migrating to the United States to work on the farms and in the fields to make a better life for their families. One priest noted the constant fear now among the children of undocumented immigrants who have lived here for years and how their parents now cannot assure them if they will be able to stay in this country. The families are foregoing healthcare because they are afraid of being arrested if they go to a clinic or the hospital. The social worker explained how she has been counseling hardworking undocumented immigrants for many years who are now experiencing an unprecedented level of hate and noted in tears the several suicides that have occurred from depression.

The other priest described a mother with children seeking legal asylum; they were fleeing a town in Mexico where her husband and two oldest daughters were murdered by a gang (see picture of family below with missionary priest). 

As I listened, I was struck by how this description of the reality of these immigrant populations is a sharp contrast to the picture painted by President Trump, who has continually warned the country about the invasion of our border by criminals, exemplified by the murder of Laken Riley by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. He went so far as to invite Riley’s parents to his recent national address to be recognized and held up as symbols of this imminent threat to our country. However, the families described above by the priests and social workers don’t sound like dangerous criminals to me; indeed they are victims of gang violence or extreme poverty.

These starkly different portrayals of a complex challenge facing our country reminds me once again of one of my favorite books, Think Again by Adam Grant. An organizational psychologist, he argues a fundamental problem with the state of learning in this country is that “we think too much like preachers defending our sacred beliefs, prosecutors proving the other side wrong, and politicians campaigning for approval—and too little like scientists searching for truth.” I wholeheartedly agree with Grant, but I would add that another missing element is that we think too little like educators, focusing on evidence to obtain a full understanding of situations facing this country.

So let’s consider the evidence. A New York Times article from January 25, 2025 compared estimates from several research organizations and the federal government to arrive at the number of people without legal status or with temporary protection in the United States at almost 14 million in 2024. Although there is not adequate space here to fully digest the breakdown of this number, consider that 40 percent were under the protection of many different programs under President Biden, including those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), DACA (dreamers), waiting on an asylum claim and groups receiving humanitarian parole such as Ukrainians, Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Many of those without legal status have been living in the country for years, working, paying taxes and developing ties to their community. Regarding criminals, there are about 605,000 non-civilians living in the United States with convictions or pending charges, which translates to 4.6 percent.  Even adding the 1.4 million people whom an immigration judge has already ordered to be removed from the country, the percentage is only 14 percent.

Tragically, the duty to educate is sorely missing from the discourse of our political leaders, whether from the left or the right, as evidenced by our recent presidential campaign. I would argue it is one of the reasons the polls show the low level of esteem Americans have for politicians. I would argue it is also one of the reasons Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump. The Democrats allowed Trump to capitalize on the fear he spread by framing immigration as an invasion of criminals, rather than educating the public on the reality that immigration is a complex humanitarian crisis facing this country, and the need to make our borders more secure from a criminal element is only a small part of the problem. Instead, Harris just blamed Trump for blocking legislation to hire more border patrol agents. Not nearly a good enough job of educating.

I am not naïve enough to hope for a serious change in political campaign rhetoric that preys on our fears and emotions, but as a publication with an audience of public administrators, we should do what we can in our spheres of influence to take on the mantle of public educators when partial truths (a polite way of saying lies) are being sold as the whole story.   

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Author: Dr. Tom Barth is a Professor Emeritus in the Gerald G. Fox MPA program at UNC Charlotte. [email protected].

 

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