It’s a law-and-order issue. But it’s also an issue about human dignity and common decency. And when we lose sight of either aspect of the issue, we harm ourselves as well as the people who wish to live here. Many people who come here illegally are doing exactly what we would do if we lived in a country where we couldn’t feed our families. If my kids went to sleep hungry every night and my country didn’t give me an opportunity to feed them, there isn’t a law, no matter how restrictive, that would prevent me from coming here.Well, what about you? Would you let your children die rather than violate the laws of a country to which you owe no citizen's loyalty? Or would you get on the ass and ride?
'The Law' is the Name of that Ass You Rode Over the Border
Senator Rubio, on illegal immigration:
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11 comments:
Starvation doesn't seem to be the problem in Mexico. Even if it was, I'm not sure letting us be the pressure release valve is the right answer for Mexican citizens. In fact, I'm not sure we don't actually help the imbalanced power structure maintain itself by providing an alternative to change in Mexico.
I'd break laws to escape an impossible country. Once in the new country, though, I wouldn't vote for a welfare state, and I'd scrub septic tanks out by hand before I'd start sucking up dole money and demanding that my kids be taught in public schools in their native language.
Open borders means no safety net. Some private help getting started should be enough.
To answer the question directly (paraphrasing Lincoln) if I could feed them without breaking laws, I would do that. If I could feed them by breaking all laws, I would do that. If I could feed them by only breaking some laws, I would do that. But I WOULD feed them.
Now would I, if given a choice, rather NOT break laws to feed them? Surely. After all, that would increase my odds of being able to continue to feed them.
I think you're right about that, Douglas. I don't think Senator Rubio is really presenting the facts in a straight-up manner.
So I agree with the argument as he presents it; but I'm not sure how relevant it actually is to the situation in Mexico.
What happened to the "fix the country I live in" choice? Why are "Starve or leave" the only two choices?
If the Mexican government did not actively encourage its citizens to seek work in the US outside the green card process, I'd have more sympathy for the "plight of the undocumented worker." Ditto if they were in the process of trying to get their economic house in order and some disaster (prolonged drought, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, the like) caused famine and disruption. Right now? I'm not so willing to encourage economic migration.
LittleRed1
What LR1 said...
What bthun said.
William sends.
Now, here's the problem with Sen Rubio's formulation. It's pretty true no matter what I present as the solution to my children starving. Would I be willing to kill a stranger if it meant my children would not starve? Yes I would. Does that mean we should decriminalize murder? Would I be willing to commit treason to keep my children from starving? Probably. Should treason thus be decriminalized?
Is there much of anything a man would not do to keep his children from starving to death? Does it then follow that everything should be decriminalized because I would be willing to do it to keep my children from starving?
I hesitate to say so, because I have no children, but I think there are things we must not do even to keep our children from starving. You could not murder your neighbor's baby, stew it up, and feed it to your children, for instance. There are fates worse than death. But such a choice is too horrible to contemplate.
Usually, my reply to suggestions like the good Senators is 'I think we hurt more Mexicans in Mexico by letting some come across the border, than we would by not letting them come across, especially as if they can come here, they don't do anything about the problems at home.'
In other words, they think they're merciful, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
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