But, hey, what’s a little bit of breaking federal law between friends? They call the story “The Great Immigration Panic,” but if you look at the explorer bar at the top, it reads “Unjust and Unethical Treatment of Illegal Immigrants in the United States”
Someday, the country will recognize the true cost of its war on illegal immigration. We don’t mean dollars, though those are being squandered by the billions. The true cost is to the national identity: the sense of who we are and what we value. It will hit us once the enforcement fever breaks, when we look at what has been done and no longer recognize the country that did it.
Perhaps the Times missed the part about the USA being a country of laws. That is the sense of who we are and what we value.
A nation of immigrants is holding another nation of immigrants in bondage, exploiting its labor while ignoring its suffering, condemning its lawlessness while sealing off a path to living lawfully. The evidence is all around that something pragmatic and welcoming at the American core has been eclipsed, or is slipping away.
Perhaps the Times missed the part where most of us came to the USA legally, as well as becoming part of the great American melting pot, whereas the illegals segregate themselves off from the rest of American society. Besides, they are not immigrants. They are not coming here to be part of the USA, but just to be squatters. And what of the ones who are stone cold criminals, Grey Lady?
Immigrants in detention languish without lawyers and decent medical care even when they are mortally ill.
Got proof?
This is not about forcing people to go home and come back the right way. Ellis Island is closed. Legal paths are clogged or do not exist. Some backlogs are so long that they are measured in decades or generations. A bill to fix the system died a year ago this month. The current strategy, dreamed up by restrictionists and embraced by Republicans and some Democrats, is to force millions into fear and poverty.
On that, I will agree. As will most Conservatives, who do not have a problem with people coming to the USA legally and attempting to become part of our experience. Meanwhile, most of those strageties dreamed up by restricionists occured during, you guessed it!, Democrat led Congresses.
The restrictionist message is brutally simple — that illegal immigrants deserve no rights, mercy or hope. It refuses to recognize that illegality is not an identity; it is a status that can be mended by making reparations and resuming a lawful life. Unless the nation contains its enforcement compulsion, illegal immigrants will remain forever Them and never Us, subject to whatever abusive regimes the powers of the moment may devise.
Did the NY Times even read what it wrote? Illegals do not deserve rights, mercy, or hope. They crossed the border (or overstayed their visas, came by boat, etc) in violation of our laws.
I must say, if perhaps the illegals, and some legals, who are Hispanic had made an attempt to be a part of America, learning English, not secluding themselves off in their own enclaves, the issue might not be what it is. They come to our country and DEMAND that we accommodate them. Not to mention all the murderers, rapists, drug dealers, kidnappers, and other form of criminal scum who have come here illegally.
Fix the legal immigration system, which includes for migrant/temporary workers and students, enforce the current laws, make it really expensive for companies who hire illegals, better monitoring of those who are here, and better control of the border. Tell those who want to come here that they need to learn English. Stop providing services for illegals. Then we can put the issue away.
