The Quote below – More Misinformation from the Media
“Alex Garcia in Poplar Bluff, Mo., and Syed Ahmed Jamal in Lawrence, Kan., were arrested despite having no criminal convictions. The arrests deprived their families of breadwinners and induced untold stresses. Such arrests have increased substantially under the Trump administration even though deportations have lagged. . . . The net effect is just to split up families, as if by spite.
“Does the nation benefit by forcing people whose only crimes were overstaying visas or entering the country illegally — the two most frequent immigration violations — to separate from their families? Until last year, ICE officers were forbidden by presidential order from arresting immigrants for either violation. Criminals were supposed to be the priority.” – Immigration Crackdown Bypasses Criminals to Punish Family Breadwinner, Editorial, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/22/18 [Link]
Fact Check of Quote: No one denies that law enforcement imposes hardships on lawbreakers. Quite often American who commit crimes are separated from their families and sent to jail. Sometimes these incarcerated people are breadwinners. No one thinks this is outrageous. So why should it be different for foreigners who break laws in our country?
Furthermore, the immigration law violator who is caught can choose to be reunited with his family. All he has to do is take them back with him to his home country.
With most illegal aliens, their “only crimes” are not just entering illegally and overstaying visas. To live in our country for any length of time they have to break other laws. They use fraudulent IDs, sometimes derived by identity theft from American citizens; they often practice tax evasion; and they take jobs legally reserved for citizens and legal foreign residents.
Any case, the people whose “only crimes” are illegal entry and visa overstay are still criminals (i.e., people who break the law) and the penalty for their crimes is deportation. These are the laws that the Obama Administration refused to enforce, and the Post-Dispatch thinks this is acceptable.
Just what happens to our country’s rule of law when authorities can arbitrarily decide which laws they prefer to enforce and which ones they don’t? And what happens to our country when we proclaim that immigration laws no longer apply and that we are open to anyone and everyone who wants to come?
These are questions open border advocates don’t want Americans to consider. Instead, they hope to banish all inquiry and rational discussion about immigration with manipulated sympathy for foreigners who disrespect our country by ignoring our laws.