“I am writing as the grandchild of four immigrants who were blessed with the extraordinary opportunity to pursue the American dream. Their path to freedom was lighted by the bright torch of the Statue of Liberty welcoming them in New York Harbor and the open door to freedom through which they walked on Ellis Island.
“I write because the valuable contributions of millions of immigrants like my grandparents is woven into the very fabric of the history of our country, and those contributions have created a debt of gratitude that I share an obligation to repay. . . .
“Together we face the intolerable injustice of heartless, indiscriminate mass roundups, deportations with no opportunity to assert valid claims to asylum, and the very real threat of separation of families and imprisonment in a Guantanamo concentration camp. None of us should stand by in silence while our immigrant neighbors are dehumanized as illegal aliens, vilified as rapists, thieves and murderers, and scapegoated as responsible for sucking America dry of its limited resources when the truth is that undocumented immigrants pay nearly $100 billion in taxes every year and receive little or nothing in return.
“We declared our freedom from a tyrant king with a Declaration of Independence that recognized rights inherent in our humanity — not our status as citizens. The inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are ‘human rights’.
“The guaranteed freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom from illegal search and seizure, the right to due process of law — those are human rights — not rights limited to citizens.– We can’t stand by in silence while our immigrant neighbors are dehumanized, Jack Scarola, USA Today, 2/24/25 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: Scarola, the writer, thinks it’s outrageous and “dehumanizing” to refer to illegal aliens as illegal aliens. His outrage seems to stem from the belief strongly implied in his article that we should make no legal distinctions between American citizens and foreigners who live here in defiance of our laws. In his mind we’re all just humans entitled to equal “human rights.” He maintains that this was the view of our country’s Founding Fathers.
That really wasn’t the case. Along some of the Founders spoke of universal rights, they maintained that those rights existed within the context of nations and their laws. Specifically, the founders justified the American Revolution on the grounds that the British Crown was violating their rights as Englishmen living in America. The Preamble of our Constitution states that its purpose is to secure “Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” The latter word, posterity, refers to national descendants. The Founders would have been incredulous at the notion that they were proposing no distinctions between citizens and foreigners.
Scarola suggests that we should feel grateful toward “undocumented immigrants” because they pay taxes and “receive little or nothing in return.” Yet in reality, the costs they incur for education, health care, welfare and other items exceed what they pay in taxes.
Like so many articles of this type this one seeks to frame the issue of immigration with maudlin sentimentality and moral posturing. These tactics serve to prevent rational discussion of immigration policy, particularly in terms of legitimate concerns about our national interests. This obfuscation is useful to political and economic elites who want to use mass immigration as means to diminish American identity and sovereignty in order to promote global governance. Those who blur the distinction between citizens and noncitizens, wittingly or unwittingly, serve the unpatriotic agenda of the globalist elites.