Yesterday, I looked down at my speedometer to see that I was driving at 55 mph in a 40 mph zone. I clearly was in violation of traffic laws.
I came home to notice my neighbor firing up a barbeque grill on his balcony–a definite violation of the city fire code.
I then read about how a list of supposed “illegal immigrants” was assembled and circulated in Utah, a probable violation of a host of laws, particularly if, as accused, it was state government employees behind the list.
Yet no one calls me or the millions like me an illegal driver. No one would think to call my neighbor an illegal griller. And has anyone called the Utah culprits illegal list-makers? Not to mention, would anyone dream of converting the adjective into a noun and calling us all “illegals”? Yet, we are all just as “illegal” as the people who are in the U.S. in violation of the immigration laws. (And, yes, the grilling and, in the jurisdiction it happened, the speeding are civil, not criminal, violations. But so is being unlawfully present in the U.S.)
Every time I speak publicly about immigration, I get the predictable crop of sloganeering and hate emails, with the former usually saying “what part of illegal don’t you understand?”
So, let me answer. People who have come to the U.S. to pick our crops, clean our tables, maintain our yards and take care of our children or grandparents are referred to as “illegals,” as though they are somehow heinous people, and yet those of us who put ourselves and others at risk of potentially fatal car wrecks or fires, or those who have put others at risk of identity theft, vengeful violence, and sheer privacy invasion, are not heatedly condemned.
That is the part of illegal that I don’t understand.
Corin,
You have a problem with comprehension. Maybe you need a few classes yourself. Since you have failed in your attempts to ridicule the otherwise well though out and logical post, you do what ignorant and primitive people do.Crystal’s post is pretty simple and straight forward. The proposition it makes is clear. Just pay some attention and understand the point she is making.
No one forced you to agree with her position.
It requires logic to get there. Sorry if you couldn’t follow.
Didn’t read anything about “punishment fitting the offense” in your blog posting.
Maybe that could be in your next blog post instead of some illogical, emotional rant like this one?
And if I am given a ticket, I pay a fine. If my neighbor is caught grilling, he will pay a fine. If an immigrant is caught here unlawfully, he is thrown out of the country and his life turned upside down. Why not allow him to pay a fine and get his status adjusted? THAT is the point. Not that breaking the law is OK, but that the punishment should fit the offense.
While, I am sure that your heart is in the right place, I am hoping that you are not actually an attorney:
To quote you – “Yet no one calls me or the millions like me an illegal driver. No one would think to call my neighbor an illegal griller.”
Uh, yeah they do. It’s called the police who catch you. And when they catch you they ticket you and you get points on your license.
And when you get enough points they suspend your license. And if you get caught driving with a suspended license you go to jail. Why?
Because you broke the law.
There are consequences to breaking the law, regardless of whether you get caught grilling, caught speeding, or caught entering the country illegally.
Here is your failed logic
* Other people besides illegal immigrants break the law (driving too fast, and grilling where they shouldn’t)
* law abiding citizens do not declare these other law breakers as “heinous” human beings like they should (which only a small fringe would do)
* Therefore illegal immigration is ok
Please go take a logic class or another debate class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
The first three words of the Constitution are “We, the people of the United States. . . ” We make the laws, and unlike the natural laws of the tides, a mother’s love, the seasons, lightning and the lightening bug, the laws of our presently broken immigration system are all man-made, and do not always conform therefore, to the better angels of our nature, but to our fear of the other, as one unlike ourselves.
The part of “illegal” that I don’t understand is why we have accepted a system which divides families, stalls predictable business hiring and jobs, blocks opportunities for our society to incorporate the energies and talents of willing new members, and is grounded in obstructionism rather than compassion and rationality. As a country we need to change our hearts, and if that is not possible, at least change our minds so that the conservatives recognize aspects of immigration which fit their world view: human capital conforming to market forces; pent-up demand for savings investments in cars, homes, education; new taxpayers on the rolls; stabilization of business practices; jobs remaining in America rather than being sent overseas because DOL and USCIS are hostile to new American jobs with foreign nationals; a recognition that the free trade favored by corporations brings a diversity which strengthens rather than harms our commonweal. The part of illegal that I don’t understand is why we permit our bureaucracies to become staffed with persons who create systems which are unresponsive, unaccountable, unfeeling, and uncaring about the lives their obstructionism seems designed to harass and harm.
The part of illegal that I DO understand is the natural law of survival. Parent’s love for their children and the hope for a better life tempt parents to sacrifice their own comfort and security to come and invest their very lives to do work in America which Americans – for whatever reasons- are unable or unwilling to do. The part of illegal that I DO understand is that where the reward for compliance with obstructive laws is to be marginalized, ignored, denigrated to less than human, and boxed into a bureaucratic mean-spiritedness that masquerades as “justice”, people will choose survival. Ironically, the survival of “illegal” foreign nationals, in the deepest sense of the American identity as a meritocracy of work and talent, individualism and community, represents our survival as a land of opportunity and idealism.
Crystal, here a joke you can use when you give a talk;
Who is an illegal alien? US citizens heading to Canada to escape global warming.
This is a great post.
I have always thought about that. The only laws these sloganeers want enforced are immigration laws.Not all the laws. They keep saying “enforce the laws in our books”, “the federal government has failed in its responsibility to enforce our laws” etc.
Now those same people complain when child support laws are enforced.Many are various offenders as you said. If they were so passionate about all the laws in the books being enforced, why dont they turn themselves and their friends and relatives in when they commit crimes?
How about publishing a list of all the people in their state databases that are accused of failing to pay child support,tax evasion,traffic tickets and drug trafficking? That is similarly a part of illegal i do not understand.