Of Heads and Hearts

Here's the problem with illegal immigration...it's illegal. Do people ever march in the streets demanding their right to do other illegal things? Are there marches of people demanding their right to drive drunk? Their right to sell cocaine? The right to committ fraud? Speaking from the head here, we owe it to ourselves to be able to soberly say a couple of things: Firstly, there is no "right" to break the law. Secondly, if it is the policy of the United States to not enforce immigration law, the United States will not exist as we know it when my unborn children are my age.

The heart, of course, begs for compassion. My head has no problem telling my mouth and my pen that all illegal immigrants need to be deported immediately. My heart, of course, calls me a soulless prick for even thinking this and defies me to look a man in the eye and tell him to go back where he came from. What we must do, to be honest with ourselves, it to try to close that gap.

Part of being honest with ourselves is acknowledging that any of us, any of us, if we could, would come here illegaly if that's what it took to care for our families. Being pissed off about illegal immigration, which I am, has absolutely nothing to do with the immigrants. Immigrants are stronger, harder working, and braver than I am. They should be exalted for their sacrifices, all made in the cause of ensuring better lives for their children.

The anger, my anger, is directed at my government. The government has a job to do and it is refusing to do so. Because of its utter dereliction of its duty, the United States is exposed to an unprecedented flow of undocumented people into our country. Once here, these people are exploited by business, which drives down the wages of American citizens. They are also forced to live in the shadows, these immigrants, non-persons in the land of the free. This is intolerable.

People who defend illegal immigration must ask themselves this: do you want to live in a country where millions of people are non-persons? I don't. Do you want to live in a country without a middle class? I don't. Do you want to live in a country with an entirely unguarded border in this age of terrorism? I don't. Do you want to live in a country where human beings are crammed into the back of trucks and traded back and forth as commodities, not as people but as cheap labor? I don't.

The favorite mantra of those who supported unlimited immigration is this: America is a land of immigrants. This is true, but to a far more limited degree than most people realize. Yes, American has historically welcomed many immigrants, but focus on this: more people have entered this country illegaly in the past 6 years than have come here legally in the entire history of the nation. So yes, there were many English, Irish, Italian, and German immigrants. But despite all their multitudes, from across continents and centuries, they are outnumbered by undocumented immigrants coming from Mexico since 2000.

Saying that American has always had immigration as an argument for tolerating this unprecedented influx is like doing nothing to respond to the 9/11 attacks because, after all, America has always had terrorism.

We must acknowledge that, depsite all our faults, people want to come here. Lots of people. Billions of people. If our policy is to allow anyone who can physically get here to stay here, our country will be swallowed up. Recognizing this, enforcing the border is a simple act of self-preservation. Countries have the right to define themselves and defend themselves. You think our immigration policy is inhuman and cruel? Try reading Mexico's immigration policy.

Advocates for the illegal also speak of the immigrants rights. Again, our heart knows that every person is equal in the eyes of God, and my head has absolutely no urge to argue against that point, which I take as a given. My head, however, must remind us that rights are not substantive unless they are actively protected. This is what governments do. So, yes, someone born in North Korea has the same rights as I do in the eyes of God. In the eyes of temporal existence, however, this person has no rights. Why? Because he does not have a government that protects them.

Illegal immigrants do not have many of the "rights" that they refer to. They have human rights, of course, but no civil rights. They are not citizens of the United States. The government of the United States, for all its faults, is a defender of the rights of American citizens. If that same government willingly ignores its own laws in the interest of "tolerance", what kind of country do we live in? One that will protect our rights? Maybe not.

I understand that to many, this reeks of jingoism. How easy for me to say these things, born a white male in America, with historically unprecedented opportunities. I acknowledge that. However, we also must acnowledge that in order for America to serve its own citizens, it needs to enforce its own laws. Allowing millions of people to be imported as objects, used and abused by American businesses, and consigned to the shadows, is not good for anyone. It's not good for the immigrants, when measured against American notions of human rights and dignity. It's not good for American citizens, who see rights and benefits claimed by people who are not legally enfranchised in any way, and its not good for our country, who can bomb Baghdad but cannot lock its own back gate.