When immigration activists say, “our immigration system is broken,” I’m not persuaded by their arguments. Their fix for the supposed brokenness is a combination amnesty + guest-worker program. Does the “brokenness” lie in our claimed (I don’t buy it) shortage of workers? Or in our failure to enforce immigration law in the past?
But here’s an example of the actual brokenness of the system: our court system doesn’t seem to be able to manage to keep deported immigrants out of the country. In today’s news, an illegal immigrant, caught in a sweep of airport workers in 2002 (she was using a fake Social Security number), not actually issued a deportation order until 2006 (!), and finally deported in 2007 after claiming “sanctuary” in a church for a year, then leaving for a political rally, returned to the U.S.
Her journey back to the city after being deported to Mexico in 2007 began last week, when she crossed into the U.S. with her sons, 5-month-old Emiliano and 15-year-old Saul, along with dozens of mostly young deportees near San Diego to protest U.S. immigration laws and deportation practices.
A two-day detention led to the scheduling of an immigration hearing for September, when she can again plead her case to stay in the U.S., said her attorney, Chris Bergin. In the meantime, Arellano was allowed to travel and arrived in Chicago on Sunday.
This woman has no case to stay in the United States. Sure, she has a son who was born here, and her pitch has been about not separating families — which would be a pretty neat trick: cross illegally into the U.S., give birth to a U.S.-citizen child, and claim the right to stay? She’s also brought along her Mexican-born infant, so I suppose if they stay long enough they can play the “he knows no other home” game.
What possible case can she have to stay in the U.S.? Her attorney claims that, after her return to Mexico, Arellano became the target of death threats because of her work as an advocate for other Mexicans hoping to come to the U.S. and because of her son Saul’s U.S. citizenship.” Why on earth would either of these two things subject her to death threats? Is this really enough to merit an asylum claim? If so, we might as well open up the southern border, because just about everyone can make a claim to suffering some kind of abuse from the drug cartels or other Mexican dysfunctions.
Hence — a true example of the brokenness of our system. If we can’t expel these people immediately upon their entering — RE-entering! — the United States, then, yes, indeed our system is broken. But the fix isn’t to grant everyone amnesty — it’s to enforce the frickin’ laws, or change the laws if our due process has mushroomed into an entity that is incapable of deporting anyone.
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