Wednesday, June 16, 2021 | 2 a.m.
View more of the Sun's opinion section
In about 1850, Harriet Tubman was moving enslaved people from the South to the North to get them out of the clutches of cruel slave masters who abused them and used their free labor for profit.
Tubman was known as a conductor on the underground railroad. Fast-forward to today and we find modern conductors, coyotes, who are moving people from places like Guatemala north to the United States’ southern border, claiming, like Tubman, they are helping people escape abuse and economic hardship.
However, today’s conductors are not providing a humanitarian service as Tubman did, but are doing it for money, $10,000 to $15,000, according to news reports. And by promoting their evil service, which they know is wrong and will not free people, they are exacerbating the problem of overloading the immigration service at a critical time in our history, coming off of a worldwide pandemic and a failed science-averse presidency.
We need more Tubman-type conductors and fewer coyotes. Americans can do better and will do better given some patience and time.
