I have a friend who is a legal immigrant from a country in South America. She came many years ago and likes to share how much hard work it took to earn her U.S. Citizenship. There is a lot of paperwork, she says. But it was worth it. She is very proud.
She also says she has no pity for illegals. None. Zeeerow! “They are Il-le-gal! I don’t care if they are one parent or a daughter, a family, or whatever it is they are doing.”
In her mind, they are breaking the law. She thinks we have to have rules and follow them. That they should not be coming here illegally. No one should encourage them and they should not be allowed to stay. And they certainly should not be permitted to become citizens without doing it the right way.
It’s an interesting conversation.
She is very animated.
Without laws we have nothing, she reminds me, knowing she does not need to do that. But the noise machine pressing for things like amnesty. The news people making them into victims. It gets her blood up. Her words.
The process of earning citizenship is long and difficult, she tells me, but unless you can commit to that then there is no reason to believe you will commit to the country.
She’s right.
Amnesty is welfare with even fewer obligations. You get something for nothing. You don’t even need an ID which, in New Hampshire at least, is required to obtain public services including food stamps. An ID that proves you are a citizen of the state where you are attempting to obtain taxpayer-funded benefits.
She and her sisters came legally. She has family back in South America. Some live or work in other countries, like Mexico where they were not just accepted without due process. There are rules. If you do not follow them they kick you out. That’s if you are lucky. If not, you go to jail. Period.
Her advice is to ignore the whining and crying of people who are indifferent to the rule of law. Don’t vote for them, she tells me. Don’t do it. (I think she knows I won’t.) If they can’t follow that law what reason is there for them to follow any other?
No reason at all.
The world is full of people like that. People in positions of power and those in pursuit of them. They don’t say they are above the law but that is how they behave. Laws that become inconvenient should be swept aside like a child’s toy. No time for them now.
Those sorts of people are not all dictators and tyrants (yet), but they all think the same way. And while we’ve got a lot of people in government doing a lot of things they shouldn’t not all of them are a threat to national security or directly tied to a rise in crime or an opioid crisis that is killing tens of thousands across the country.
All because a few people who think they know better can ignore the law.
