Wrong Msg to the Wrong People – A rebuttal

In the previous post, Huckabee – the wrong message to the wrong folks, Sanity Please decided to respond. Rather than keeping my response in the comments section, I’ve decided to Post it, as this is one of the most important issues in the illegal immigration debate. Once again, in different guise, we have the all inclusive phrase "it’s for the children".

"[W]hat if I committed a crime and was sent to prison[?]" If you brought your children with you to the scene of the crime and forced them to help you, should they be sent to prison for the same amount of time?

Sanity has completely missed my point – yet he states it himself. If I brought my children – as the responsible entity, I have broken the Rule of Law – the single most important point I stand on here. We are first and foremost, a nation of laws. You may not like them, but we need to obey them. Period. Change them if you do not like them, but until them, obey them. Or suffer the consequence.

When parents ignore the law(s), there can be horrific consequences. In this area, these parents that are here illegally are putting their children at tremendous risk. However, most of these parent believe that the risk is worth it….but they are risking their children on the bet that they would not be found out.

My answer to Sanity’s question is that while the kids are not directly responsible as they are doing the bidding of their parents, it was the parents responsiblity and the parents must suffer the consequences of their actions. And part of that is that they will need to bring their children back to where they were born. Let’s squarely blame where it should lie – on the parents. Again, our society is removing parental responsibility from the overall equation – long term, that destroys a society.

Let’s also make this quite clear – the analogy of prison is a poor one in who Sanity is using it. Deportation is not prison (although the parents may end up in prison / detention while awaiting judgment of their poor decision to break our laws).

Sanity Please continues:

That’s how current law treats the children of undocumented immigrants who were born abroad, and it is wrong. Years later, after they have grown up here, stayed in school and out of trouble, these young people should be given an opportunity to get on with their lives without fear of deportation.

No, the current law is not wrong. We have a legal and orderly system of law that allows for legal migration to those that wish to come here legal both from a short term basis (H1-B visa for example), longer term (green card), or by naturalized citizenship. If an illegal immigrant tries to suborn that law, we as a society have to met out a punishment to the parents – the consequence of their action will affect their children.

Again, the risk of punishment should be a threat to breaking the law. However, people like Sanity, who are more to the emoting side than the thinking side with this/her feel-good intentions, provide the cover to allow a "pick and choose" mentality to the laws that can lead to a total break down in authority if taken to the extreme.

That’s not only the American way, it is in the interest of the rest of us.

I politely disagree. While I do not advocate for massive deportation, I do believe that all magnets leading to illegal immigration be shut down – no social services to illegals, harsh measures to those that employ them (I love this), enforcement by local authorities, no "catch and release" allowing those caught to melt back into the population, and no long term healthcare extended (emergency as in life and death – yes!) to them.

If they are going to remain here, which (let’s face it) almost all of them will, then it is in our interest that they continue their education as far as their ambition and aptitude can take them. It is a tiny investment that will pay much more in dividends in the form of tax payments and saved social services and criminal justice costs.

Posted by: Sanity Please

I disagree once again, this time with the basic premise – they may not remain here. Nor should they. It sounds harsh, it plays harsh, and in this time of "feel-good emoting rather than logical reasoning, it puts me far away from the Open Borders types. But I care not where they come from (Central America, Mexico, or even the land of my ancestors – Ireland); if they are here by breaking our laws, send or go back. What Sanity states may be true but ONLY if one dismisses the Rule of Law.

Look, I have been around since before Teddy K helped to change the immigration law that worked back in the 1960′s – have a sponsor, the sponsor (and not society) be financially responsible for them, come here by legal means, learn English, and assimilate.

I totally reject the reasoning of "heck, what are we to do?" and throwing up our collective arms and just live with it. That is giving up because "heck, it’s too hard" – another recipe for disaster.

People seems to forget that other countries, like Mexico, wouldn’t even begin to have this discussion – it just illegal. So why do we ignore our own laws?

It also seems that few agree with Sanity. From Inside Higher Ed (the actual LA TImes article requires registration):

There is little public support for giving students who lack the legal documents to legally stay in the United States in-state tuition rates, a poll by the Los Angeles Times has found. The report, which covers a variety of immigration policies, found that only 20 percent of Democrats and 6 percent of Republicans support the use of in-state rates for these students.

Part of the American Ethos is "play by the rules" – Americans hate those that cheat.

What Sanity is doing is rationalizing cheating.