Op:Illegal immigration isn't immoral

[cvangel]

Illegal immigration isn't immoral
Notes from Underground
Adam Roberts
Issue date: 12/8/08 Section: Opinion


Whenever anyone talks about assisting illegal immigrants, they're met with angry opposition. Opponents of being nice to illegal immigrants seem to think that they are being helpful when they point out the fact that people are "here illegally" and "breaking the law."

Guess what? We already knew that.

Just because you break a law doesn't mean that you're automatically a horrible person who deserves no charity or consideration. I wonder - how many of the people who cry out that any leniency or assistance given to illegal immigrants is amnesty turn around and advocate the greatest possible mercy when they become illegal parkers?

People complain that illegal immigrants "cut in line" in front of those who go through the process legally. This is bunk. For immigrants from Latin America, there is no "line." The citizenship process is more like a giant bureaucratic blender operated by the pencil pushers at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (now in its third incarnation in just five years).

First, you try to apply for a green card. Six different desk clerks tell you to bring your papers to six different offices in six different cities - all tell you you're at the wrong place. You then wait somewhere between five and eleven years, depending on how many people lost your paperwork and who wants copies of mysterious, probably nonexistent forms with names like "XJ2781." The people at the USCIS phone number give you different instructions every time you call. Assuming you can afford an immigration attorney, you learn that no one really has any idea how the process is even supposed to work.

If you are lucky enough to get a green card, the road to citizenship will still take several more years and countless trips to alphabet soup agencies that no one has ever heard of. One day, you receive a notice in the mail informing you that you are now in the country illegally. This comes a week after receiving a notice informing you that you are not allowed to visit your home country.

A kid who has lived in the United States for her entire life (save perhaps the first week) has a family here, friends, a favorite football team and an acceptance letter to a major university, but she gets strangled in red tape and is exiled from a country that is hers in all but name - and you think she is the villain in the story?

The National Research Council's studies show that the average illegal immigrant pays much more in taxes than he gets in services, so don't try to bring that old lie up. All of them pay sales and property taxes, and two-thirds pay Medicare, Social Security and personal income taxes. Although you're sure to find some bad apples, the majority of illegal immigrants are people who are trying to work within the system but keep getting jerked around by the USCIS apparatchiks.

The immigration process is arbitrary, unfair and unjust. Yes, overstaying a work visa or green card is illegal, but so what?

Let's take a look back at why we even have laws in this country in the first place. The basic idea can be summed up in 55 words from the Declaration of Independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Everyone, everywhere across the world has the exact same rights, and the U.S. government was created to protect them when it can. It does not have the power to give rights or to take them away. Someone born in Juárez has just as much right to apply for a job at a Walmart in Fayetteville as someone born in Honolulu does.

The vast majority of American laws are good ones. They protect us from murderers and crooks and dangerous drivers. But occasionally, a rule will conflict with the natural law and violate someone's rights. We all have the moral obligation to respect others' rights. However, an ordinary civilian is under absolutely no moral obligation to obey an unjust law. It's wrong to break a law against rape because that violates someone's rights, but it's not wrong to break a law against aiding a runaway slave.

If the immigration process were reformed and the USCIS started using a just process, then you might be able to make a case that illegal residents are doing something immoral. But why should a hard-working student be deemed undeserving of some private financial assistance just because an incompetent federal agency is too bureaucratic to process her papers?

Adam Roberts is a columnist for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Monday.
http://tinyurl.com/5a9vxx

[alisab]

I am too angry for words reading this article.

[millere]

I am too angry for words reading this article.

I notice the footer that states:

"Adam Roberts is a columnist for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Monday. "

If the paper were more honest it would read:

"Adam Roberts is a Left-wing Extremist for The Arkansas Traveler. If he does not express hatred for American citizens and other Open Borders opinions the Socialists who own The Arkansas Traveler will not publish his pieces and he won't get paid. His column appears every Monday."

[Populist]

You can leave comments at the source link.

[Richard]

This was not an editorial it was a comedy routine

[Rebelrouser]

This is B.S. When they cross the border they are breaking the law. In other words THEY ARE CRIMINALS.

[SOSADFORUS]

I know it is not in this article but I am sick of hearing about their civil rights, they are not citizens they have NO civil rights in the United States of America, here is the definition from the dictionary....


civ·il law

noun
Definition:

1. law of citizens' rights: the law of a state dealing with the rights of private citizens


2. ancient Roman law: the law of ancient Rome, especially the part concerned with private citizens


3. law based on Roman law: a system of law based on Roman law rather than common law or canon law


civ·il lib·er·ties
plural noun
Definition:
rights to freedom: the basic rights guaranteed to individual citizens by law, e.g. freedom of speech and action
civ·il lib·er·tar·i·an noun


civ·il rights
plural noun
Definition:
basic rights: rights that all citizens of a society are supposed to have, e.g. the right to vote or to receive fair treatment from the law. These rights as conceived in U.S. law are set forth in the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and in some congressional acts.

http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_18616 ... ights.html

We are sick of you people thinking we are stupid, they are illegal and have no CIVIL RIGHTS in this country!

[Bowman]

This was not an editorial it was a comedy routine

I agree, the guy is a total nut case! Sounds like a Laural and Hardy Act.

[mkfarnam]

This dork is saying it alright to break laws if you don't like them. Now we know who the Illegals are following.

This is all BS.!!

[vortex]

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

The unalienable rights, IMO, is reaching for an ideal the founders found lacking in British rule, but it was an ideal that this country has tried to impress world-wide. Governments are instituted among men, and governments are charged to make laws. Some of those laws include rules for immigration. Violating those laws by sneaking into this country means that the consent of the governed has been thrown out.
Yes, all men are created equal. We are all homo sapiens no matter what shells we wear. But equality does not only happen inside the US borders which is what these lazy illegals seem to think. Want equality? Stay home and fight for it.