2007 Articles Index
America Can Be Better
Don't Think of It as Illegal Immigration
Think of It as Illegal Entry
A problem in the current discussions, however, is that "immigrant", a noun, can be and often is replaced by another noun, "person", as a rhetorical strategy. Clearly an immigrant is a person, so the association is both strong and valid. The manipulation of the debate comes from feeding the word person back into the original phrase, giving us an "illegal person".
Even to the most ardent foes of uncontrolled borders, such as myself, the phrase sounds Orwellian. No sensible person is interested in calling someone an "illegal person", yet the advocates of open borders use the phrase widely precisely because it is distasteful, even to their opponents.
We must avoid being drawn into this simple but very effective derailing strategy. It is helpful to think of "illegal entry" and keep that phrase close to the front of your consciousness. There are several benefits. First and foremost, "illegal entry" refers unequivocally to an act, not a person. Those of us who expect our government to take control of our borders have little interest, strictly speaking, in the person committing the act. Is it a man or a woman? Who cares! Is he or she from Mexico or from Colombia? Or Canada or Flatonia? Who cares!
Undoubtedly, in these times, we have more interest in illegal immigrants from some countries than others, but that is a completely separate issue altogether.
The first issue of concern, in every sense, is that someone, never mind who, is crossing into this country illegally, committing illegal entry. We won't stand for it when it happens to our homes. Why on earth are we supposed to stand for it when it happens to our country?
Everything else is secondary. What's the gender? What's the country of origin? What's the native language? What's the intent? All secondary. Interestingly, these are all traits of a person. Only a particular person can have a gender, or come from a particular country, and so on. And none of these things is significant in the debate about illegal entry into this country.
"No person is illegal." You hear it often, and it certainly sounds right on the surface. Even strict border control types like me cringe at the thought of calling a person illegal. It smacks of the police state.
For all these reasons, it is essential to keep the discussion focussed where we need it. The problem is not primarily which persons are entering illegally. That is of interest to specific agencies trying to protect us from specific threats.
The primary problem is that many persons are entering illegally, and staying here, and causing problems just by their undocumented presence, in addition to whatever other problems they may add to - using up welfare resources, taxing law enforcement resources, driving down wages, whatever. It doesn't matter.
The simple fact of illegal entry is a problem in and of itself, and is all that needs to be addressed in the debate about borders. In that discussion you shouldn't care an iota about who is crossing, or from where. Those things may be of interest downstream, to agencies looking for bad guys out to do certain kinds of damage to our country or our citizens. But all we need our lawmakers (perhaps law-ignorers is a better term) to do for now is to enforce the existing law that makes it illegal to enter this country without applying for and receiving permission.
How on earth can this be so difficult for supposedly intelligent elected officials to grasp?
