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Is it time to defend the barricades?
I don't know if any readers of this column are
in the U.S. illegally. My guess? few if any. Today my target audience
is intended to be only those of us who are American citizens. You and
I, as citizens of this country, whether you were born here or accepted
the invitation to profess your loyalty to the USA and become a naturalized
citizen, have decisions to make. We must decide the rules that allow or
deny those born elsewhere the future right to act as citizens: register,
vote, serve on juries, and deal with all the other myriad details involved
in being loyal Americans. There are some countries where you can become
a citizen only if your grandparent was a resident, as well as your parent.
Then, and only then, are you eligible to be granted citizenship.
It's easier in this country. Here your mother can walk across the border
at midnight, give birth to you in the INS office at 12:02 a.m., and you're
a citizen. 100 years ago it was easier still, which is why I exist. My
grandparents saw opportunity. The four came to the US at three different
times under three different circumstances. Though one grandfather's sister,
my great aunt, not only became a citizen but taught the basics of citizenship
to many others, three of my grandparents never became citizens, for various
good reasons. My father's mother was finally permitted to become a citizen
in her eighties without taking the usual tests, after more than sixty
years of exemplary behavior. She was a proud new citizen, and a proud
new voter indeed. But she'd been loyal to America's ideals during her
entire residence, as had my other grandparents.
I've no doubt most non-citizen residents in this country, legal or illegal,
are as well-behaved and exemplary. Nevertheless, those here illegally
commit an ongoing crime by their simple presence. They've no business
within our borders. In the case of persons from Mexico even those who
came here legally and have become citizens are suspect. Their unconditional
loyalty is always in some doubt, not because of anything they themselves
have done, but because the nation they've foresworn still claims their
allegiance through its laws. National loyalty is not divisible. You can't
logically pledge allegiance to the flags of two different nations. There's
an inherent conflict of interest. When some Irish Catholic immigrants
to the U.S. chose to fight for Mexico during the Mexican War, we executed
some of them without delay or fanfare.
I see nothing wrong with Mexicans, after entering this country in legal
fashion and getting their green cards, working hard and then sending money
home to support the families left behind. I see a great deal wrong with
tens of thousands of people crossing our borders each year, "informally"
without passports, visas, or so much as a "how do you do?" to the border
police. For one thing, their massive and continuing presence effectively
hides those, like the suicidal hijackers who destroyed the World Trade
Centers, who wish us serious harm.
It's time we punish both illegal immigrants and those Americans who benefit
from illegal immigrants. Perhaps we ought to agree that persons who knowingly
employ illegal aliens lose their own citizenship. Allow them to pay taxes.
But don't allow them to vote in American elections. Don't allow their
children to be educated in American schools. Illegal immigrants should
be prominently and permanently marked in some fashion, sent back to their
home country, and forbidden to ever re-enter this country.
My suggestions are tentative. I hope they get you thinking. Perhaps you
have more constructive alternatives than what I've proposed.
Paul Azevedo's E mail address is Paul@thereactor.net.
Check his website at http://www.thereactor.net.
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