More Sob Stories

Today's USA Today has a front-page article on how some churches in America are actively trying to thwart the rule of law by providing "sanctuary" to illegal immigrants. Never mind that there is no such thing as church sanctuary from secular laws, the churches maintain that they are doing God's work by fighting "unjust" enforcement of our borders.

The article comes complete with plenty of heart-warming photos of "anchor babies" to make us feel guilty about insisting that the government follow the law, as well as a picture of one woman posing behind the "bars" of a church gate (no propaganda there, no sirree). This supposedly conveys the fact that many of the illegal aliens argue that the fact that they have children that are citizens is the main reason to let them stay, but the piece also lists many other excuses as to why the illegals should not be deported. Fortunately, it also unwittingly details exactly why these people should be bounced out of here:

"Jose first crossed the border illegally through Tijuana in 1989. He has been battling immigration officials since 2002, he says, when they discovered he worked at Los Angeles International Airport. Last year, they told him he had to leave the USA by November. He didn't."

So Jose was caught illegally working at an airport, which is a top priority for tight security these days, and is given a grace period of 4 years to get his act together and leave voluntarily. Nope, he decides to just thumb his nose and go hide in a church, instead of complying with the law.

"Joe, 28, and his wife Mei, 26, came to the USA from China using fake passports. He came in 1996; she in 2000. They applied for asylum but it was denied, Joe says.
Authorities discovered them in the country illegally in late 2005, when the Brooklyn residents were in a car pulled over for speeding. They now face deportation.
They have two children, 2-year-old Crystal and 4-month-old Jeffrey, who are U.S. citizens because they were born here. The couple fear they would be punished in China for violating the government's population-control policy that limits many families to one child."

I hate to sound callous, but why is that fact America's problem? You decided to have 2 children after you were caught being here illegally, in an obvious attempt to game the system, but it didn't work. Now you're afraid that you'll be in trouble in China? Actions have consequences, you know. You are the ones that did this to your children, not America.

"Marco Castillo, 25, came from Mexico with his mother and two sisters when he was 4 to join his father. They crossed into this country legally with a visitor's visa in 1986 but stayed after it expired.
They applied for legal residency and got bad legal advice, he says. Castillo, his mother and one sister — the other married a citizen — signed papers saying they would leave voluntarily without realizing what they were doing, he says. Their case is being appealed."

If I sign a paper committing me to a mortgage or a house payment, I have to honor that contract. If I promise something to the government in a plea bargain, I have to follow through, or I go to jail. I'm not allowed to use "bad legal advice" as a defense, so why should illegal immigrants?

"Jean Montrevil, 38, came here from Haiti in 1986 and is a legal resident.
But a 1989 drug conviction, which sent him to prison for 11 years, qualified Montrevil for deportation and landed him in detention for six months in 2005. He reports monthly to immigration officials. The Brooklyn resident is married to a U.S. citizen. The couple have four children."

Poor old Jean gets a chance to live the American dream, but messes it up by being some sort of drug trafficker (11 years? Jean was not a recreational user), and now it's our fault that he has to leave? I don't think so. The laws regarding legal residency are clear: If you violate them, you lose your residency, whether you have children or not. There are millions of American citizens in prison who have children. That didn't stop them from being sent to the Big House. Why should immigrants be immune to facing consequences for their actions?

Then we have Liliana, whose "deportation order stems from 1998, when she was caught trying to get into the USA with a fake U.S. birth certificate. She says she didn't realize that would thwart her chances of becoming a legal resident. She later hired a smuggler to sneak her into Arizona."

I would never have dreamed that crossing the border illegally numerous times, as well as forging government documents, a felony, would be a speed bump to legal residency.

Liliana is also a poster child for the "anchor baby" defense:

"Liliana, a 29-year-old factory worker from Mexico who crossed the border illegally in 1998, begged and pleaded. "What about my children?" she asked. "I have a baby. I'm nursing."
The agents softened when they heard Pablito crying, she says, and gave her a reprieve. They ordered her to report to a detention center five days later to be sent back to Mexico."

So the agents cut her a break, and gave her a few days to get her affairs in order. She then kicks them in the teeth by deciding to ignore the law yet again, and now wants sympathy from me? Not going to happen.

Finally, we have good ol' Elvira Arellano, who started this whole movement. I've written about her and her entitlement attitude before. Amazingly, ICE still has yet to boot her arrogant butt back to Mexico, despite knowing exactly where she has been for the last year, and despite her rubbing the noses of ICE in her flippant and cavalier attitude regarding her lawbreaking. What does it take to get a unrepentant, loud-mouthed lawbreaker removed these days, anyway?

If these are the kinds of illegal immigrants USA Today is shilling for, imagine the millions of cases that wouldn't clean up even this much. Again, I am not anti-immigration. I am anti-illegal immigration, and these examples have just made my case for me beautifully.