"Earned the right to be citizens" - REALLY? Defined "earned"? - Granite Grok

“Earned the right to be citizens” – REALLY? Defined “earned”?

Emphasis mine from CNSNews:

Speaking at the United States Conference of Mayors on Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the approximately 11 million people who are in the country illegally have “earned the right to be citizens.”…Johnson, who had earlier served as general counsel for the Department of Defense under Obama from 2009 to 2012, told the more than 270 mayors in attendance that enforcing immigration law was one of the main missions of DHS.

Earned?  Simply by crossing OUR border, with the intent of doing it illegally, and being here?  Sorry, that’s NOT the definition of the word that I learned in school.  Earned meant earnest hard work dong legally – above board and without reproach.  A good day’s work, done honestly – that is what the American version of the word has meant.  Now, as with many other ideas, we are seeing its redefinition simply to meet a Leftist political agenda.

I keep hearing that word, “earned” – but no Leftist or Progressive has been willing to tell me what THEY mean by it?  Cross our border illegally – that’s earned?  Live here – illegally – that’s earned?  Use the safety net meant for our citizen and legal residents – that’s earned?  I don’t understand – how is “earned“?

Earned – I DO know what it means: go to one of our embassies legally.  Take and fill out the paperwork legally.  Wait the time necessary – get the visa legally.  Enter our country legally.  Apply for citizenship – do the studying, pass the test, take the oath – do it legally.

Earning it means doing it legally and following the Rule of Law.  Not just handing American Citizenship out as if it was mere popsicles.

“The five core missions of the Department of Homeland Security are guarding against terrorism, securing our borders, enforcing our nation’s immigration laws, safeguarding cyberspace and critical infrastructure in partnership with the private sector, and supporting emergency preparedness and response efforts at every level,”

So, Government has failed in its mission in securing our borders (the 20 or so million illegal aliens is the plain truth of it).  #FAIL.  And now we are to accept what we are told by Government a la Emily Latella (“never mind”)?  It has failed in its mandate to enforce immigration law – and we are to simply throw up our hands and accept the Government’s RESET button?

…Common sense immigration reform is supported by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, businesses, and if the polls (are) to be believed, the majority of the American people.  Border security is inseparable from homeland security.”

Really – we are to fall for the “common sense” line?  I keep hearing it – it means “You are an idiot and only MY ideas are worth contemplating – and, by Marx, we’re gonna implement them.  After all, who can be against ‘common sense’ especially when it is against our own interests?

And border security must and should be part of comprehensive immigration reform – protecting our borders, securing our ports, promoting the lawful flow of trade and travel through our ports to cities and other communities.

Right – for DECADES I have watched our immigration laws languish and not really enforced.  I have watched these 5 years as our President blithely enforces our laws Chicago style (e.g., “punish our enemies”) and ignore those he deems “unnecessary”?

Just look at what he has been doing with the clear law of Obamacare – his morphing into the Unitary President becomes more and more pronounced.  What is YOUR Trust level in him “faithfully executing” any comprehensive law?  After all, he’s all but implemented the DREAM Act simply by dint of executive fiat.  We have had immigration laws for decades – and we keep hearing “this will be the last time needed for reform” over and over again.

Comprehensive immigration reform would also promote a more effective and efficient system for enforcing our immigration laws, and should include an earned path to citizenship for the approximately 11-and-a-half-million undocumented immigrants present in this country, something like 86% of whom have been here almost 10 years.

“Earned” does not mean what you think it does – at least in the hands of the Ruling Class.  Simply being here for 10 years does not mean that an illegal immigrant has earned a thing – it merely means that he or she has continuously broken our laws for a decade or more.

An earned path to citizenship for those currently present in this country is a matter of, in my view, homeland security to encourage people to come out from the shadows, to be accountable, to participate in the American experience, the American society.

Why is it a matter of security – we do it so often we ought to be the most secure country in the world – but we’re not.  Laws are ignored not just the Left OR the Right (given the rising drumbeat from the DC Chuckleheads that have Rs after their name to completely torque off their base who knows the bad effects it will on their fellow citizens on the lower rungs of our socio-economic ladder.  But hey, if our top economic need is to provide even lower cost labor for the US Chamber of Commerce, why not?  Let that U6 unemployment rate for American citizens stay at 13% or so, right?

“It is also, frankly, in my judgment, a matter of who we are as Americans.  To offer the opportunity to those who want to be citizens, who’ve earned the right to be citizens, who are present in this country – many of whom who came here as children – to have the opportunity that we all have to try to become American citizens.”

Who we are as Americans is adhering to a few pillars of philosophy – one of which is the Rule of Law (and not the emoting of Man).  We DO offer the chance for those who wish to be Citizens – a well defined LEGAL path to follow.  Do that.  And yes, I would ask that you go and Impress me with your conviction to become one – by honoring our Laws as well as the hardship, time, and money spent by those that have travelled that road before.  Impress me with your earnestness, your willingness, your show of taking on the hardship, your studiessness, and willing to renounce all fealty to “the old country”.

“… that we all have to try to become American citizens.” Anyone else catch that: “that we all have”.  No, we all don’t have that chance.  The majority have it as a birthright – and I have no problem with that.  Yes, I could have been born anywhere (and some of those places being highly undesireable), but I wasn’t.  I don’t mope or whine “Oh woe is me, I’m lucky and privileged”; instead, I do the best I can given what I’ve been given.  But if I had to choose to come, could I live with myself, or look into my kids eyes without having to look away, and say “yes, I broke the law but I still deserve to be here – GIVE ME MY CITIZENSHIP!”

Naw, couldn’t live myself that way.

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