Our country has a law, and the law ought to count for something.
It’s not that laws can’t be changed. If you and I think a law is wrong, we can work to change it. But laws are important, because if you don’t have any law at all, then your rights will not be recognized. That’s what laws ought to do: protect people’s rights. A law that does that is a good law.
The law of our land is this: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
My friend who lives in Chicago is a natural born United States citizen, a white lady like me. She has several natural born citizen children, and one child born abroad who is also a United States citizen, according to our laws. It is illegal to deny them their life, liberty, or property without due process of the law.
These children are Mexican-American.
They have beautiful tan skin and black hair, with deep brown eyes. They speak both English and Spanish fluently. My friend makes them caldo in the summer. They are Americans just like you and me, and this is the corner of American culture they inhabit: the Mexican-American one.
On September 16th, Mexico’s Independence Day, the Mexican-Americans who live in Chicago usually hold a big celebration. They have parties outdoors with food and music. My friend’s children love to go out into the street to dance and wave their Mexican flags at the parties. They have a great time. Imagine your own family, gathered around the pool at a Fourth 0f July barbecue, waiting for the fireworks to start. That’s how it feels, only it’s more colorful.
Now, imagine the National Guard rolls up to your Fourth of July party in a tank. Imagine jackbooted soldiers put out the fire in your charcoal grill with a big red fire extinguisher and yank you out of the swimming pool with the lifeguard’s hook. They deny you your first-amendment right to express yourself by tearing down the flag bunting around the fence and smashing your radio. They terrify your children, and if you don’t act just the right way, they might deny your children their life and liberty without due process of the law as well.
Would you feel violated if that happened?
Well, President Trump has already announced he’s sending the National Guard to Chicago, now that the 16th is just a short time away. That much is known for fact. He said so just today.
Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker has warned everyone that he’s been informed they’re being sent from Texas, just before September 16th, with the specific aim of terrorizing Mexican-Americans. Pritzker has been warned that federal agents are specifically going to terrorize anyone who looks like they might be Latino. And ICE is going to break up parades and outdoor parties, to create as much chaos in the Mexican community as possible.
Remember, ICE is already deporting United States citizen children, like my friend’s children. It happened just last month.
My friend’s children, who under the highest law in the land have the same rights and privileges that you do, are looking forward to a party and a parade. They want to wave flags and celebrate their heritage in public. But I don’t know if they’ll be able to. I don’t know what their mother is going to do.
Our country has a law.
Somebody is behaving in a lawless way, and it’s not Mexican-Americans.
It’s not.
Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross, The Sorrows and Joys of Mary,
and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.
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