More Misinformation from the Media:
Throughout American history, protests have played a key role in many advocacy movements for just causes – from the abolitionist fight against slavery, to the women’s suffrage movement. . . . Because the passage or failure of the Dream Act will determine the future of so many young people, it makes perfect sense for those affected and their allies to engage in all manner of nonviolent advocacy.
In addition, it’s not correct to call undocumented immigrants the pejorative term “illegal,” because it is not a crime to be in this country without documentation. – it’s a civil offense. Acts can be illegal, but people can’t. For example, getting a speeding ticket means that a person has driven faster than the legal speed limit – it does not mean the driver is illegal.
America is the only nation in the world with a statue in our most prominent harbor inviting the world to ‘give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ Those words engraved on the Statue of Liberty should mean something, and not simply be an empty slogan. – Protests in Support of Undocumented Immigrants Are Part of a Proud American Tradition, Fox News, Rev. Ryan M. Eller, 11/19/17 [Link]
Fact Check: Throughout history American citizens have organized and protested for various causes—and petitioned their elected officials. The key word is “citizens.” The writer of this piece, like so many immigration advocates, doesn’t seem to grasp the meaning of this word. He equates the activism of U.S. citizens with the recent protest by a group of illegal aliens and their supporters at a U.S. Senate office building. The goal of the protest was to pressure to Senate to grant amnesty to illegal aliens.
The comparison is outrageous. Here we have a group of foreigners, residing illegally in the United States, trying to tell our elected officials how to run our country.
The writer says that it is not a “crime” to be here without “documentation.” But the reason they lack legal documents is because they are here illegally. In many cases, it is true, the presence of illegal aliens is a civil rather than a criminal offense, but this is legal hair splitting. Their presence is still a violation of the law, and the penalty for that violation is deportation. That consequence suggests the offense is far more serious than speeding—usually punished with a relatively small fine.
Furthermore, whether the simple presence of illegal aliens is civil or criminal, almost all illegal aliens break additional laws in order to remain in the U.S., and many of these are classified as criminal offenses. Examples are document fraud and tax evasion.
The writer’s use of the “huddled masses” quote is so tiresome and typical of immigration advocates. Rather than deal with genuine problems stemming from mass immigration, they deflect debate with sentiments from the Statue of Liberty poem. Nevertheless, this ploy by the writer actually backfires on his intent to justify illegal immigrants. Historically, the huddled masses welcomed by the Statue of Liberty were people who were processed for admission at Ellis Island. They came here legally.