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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Why Not Call Them Criminally Trespassing Aliens?

Under the current laws of the United States, Jose Antonio Varga who testified before congress today is a criminal.  Not a dangerous one,but a criminal nevertheless. When Vargas was 12, his mother sent him to live with his grandparents in the US--ignoring the immigration laws at the time (he had no knowledge that his presence was against the law until he was 16. He kept his immigration status secret, pursuing his education and fitting in as an American, with the help of friends and teachers, using false documents including a green card, Filipino passport, and a driver’s license that helped him to avoid deportation.

While I believe that people such as Vargas should have some pathway to staying here permanently (only after the borders are tightly sealed), there is no sympathy on my part for the politically correct nonsense about not calling him or others like him what they are-- Illegal and Aliens. Today Mr. Vargas whined his case to Congress.
Jose Antonio Vargas, an illegal immigrant and former reporter, scolded a congressional panel on Wednesday, saying that he should not be called illegal, and saying it is an insult to his family who brought him here. 
“When you inaccurately call me illegal, you not only dehumanize me, you’re offending them,” he said. “No human being is illegal.”
While Jose Vargas may not have known his presence in the U.S. was illegal, the adults who sent him here did.  I am sorry if you feel I offended them but they knew they were sending a minor to a place he was barred from going. They caused you (a minor) to break the law. That makes them twice as guilty.

Mr. Vargas calls himself an “undocumented immigrant.” Lets look at the dictionary:
Immigrant: a person who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence
Alien: An unnaturalized foreign resident of a country. Also called noncitizen.
Sorry Mr. Vargas but Alien fits what you are much better. And as for the Illegal part
Illegal: forbidden by law; unlawful; illicit
If I steal a car and the cops come to my house and ask me to show the papers proving I own the car and I can't, are they going to say I am illegal or undocumented?

If I kidnap a child and I am asked to prove via a birth certificate whether the kid is mine or not, am I an undocumented parent, or a kidnapper?

If someone breaks into my house are they an undocumented resident or are they criminally trespassing.

Understand, I am not arguing against some sort of immigration reform, nor do I believe Mr. Vargas should be deported. But words matter, he is an Illegal Alien, a tax increase is not a revenue enhancement, and additional government spending programs are not investments--softening the term does not make the case more valid, it simply makes people wonder what they are covering up.

1 comment:

OB1 said...

Time to get over this 'illegal' problem. Perhaps an analogy might help to see what's happened. Imagine that instead of the 1970 Democrats dropping the freeway speed limit down to 55, they'd dropped it to 25. Would you have gone faster? Perhaps 35, or 45, or 55, or screw it, 65 or 75 or more?

Just how high would the pile of tickets been, if every time you were speeding were piled up and up? You'd be a speeding felon.

Well, this is basically what's been going on in our immigration system for decades. Many many good law abiding folks have been coming into the US to help the marketplace provide goods and services that the marketplace is willing to pay for.

The problem in immigration is the much same as an artificially low freeway speed limit -- market forces will ignore silly politically driven rules.

Go get over it folks. No one is every going to put you in jail for all those thousands of miles you drove over 55 on freeways during the 1970s thru early 90s when the GOP Congress finally nixed one of the Democrats stupid ideas.

It's long pass time to develop a reasonable common sense way to extend the same forgiveness for the stupidly complex and low immigration policies of recent decades.

Common sense doesn't mean immediate amnesty any more than deportation. Something in the middle. Nor does it mean chain migration without boundaries, or freebie handouts or assimilation without learning English... Etc, etc.