“I’ve spoken of [John Winthrop’s] shining city all my political life… In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.

“…And how stands the city on this winter night? After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.”

United States President Ronald Reagan uttered those words among his final speeches in 1989. We can’t help but wonder would he have repeated that had he been alive in today’s circumstances when immigration is almost a dirty word.

Make no mistake about it, immigration cannot mean a country must open its doors to all and sundry, especially to undocumented people. That’s a sure recipe for disaster. Jamaica has wrestled with that issue in respect of the unfortunate Haitians fleeing dire straits of violence and poverty.

In the current circumstances in the US, the Donald Trump Administration has interpreted its electoral mandate regarding immigration to mean it must throw out an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. That is America’s right.

Still, we do not fully grasp the rationale behind the interpretation of the mandate. It most definitely parts company with Mr Reagan’s shining city on a hill and even his vision of making America great again, which Mr Trump says he is following.

For example, the removal of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, while nothing is said of Ukranians who are also fleeing a war they did not start, is inconsistent.

It is also difficult to fathom the motive behind rescinding the agreement to accept thousands of Afghans on the eve of their arrival in the US as payback for their assistance to American troops in that long war, but now leaving them at the mercy of the merciless Taliban.

Neither is it clear why illegal immigration is being used as the excuse for slapping tariffs on America’s two biggest trade partners — Canada and Mexico — potentially triggering a trade war that would go far beyond the three countries involved.

Pictures of undocumented immigrants who are not known criminals being returned home in chains and leg irons suggest that the intention is to hurt and scare, rather than simply getting out people who are apparently seeking a better life in Mr Reagan’s shining city on a hill.

All this, of course, says that Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness could not have been more right last Thursday at the National Security Council seminar when he told Jamaicans they were not stateless and should come home if they are finding things difficult.

“…Don’t stay there and suffer… Come back and let us build your homeland so that you can stand up with pride… and you don’t have to be economic refugees,” he advised.

That is what Vision 2030 was about — making Jamaica the place to live, work, and raise families — even if we have to delay the dream somewhat.