In an address to the Mexican-American Education Defense Fund, a stridently pro-amnesty Hispanic organization, Attorney General Eric Holder made the following statement: “Creating a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in this country is absolutely essential. The way we treat our friends and neighbors who are undocumented [i.e., illegal] . . . transcends the issue of immigration status. This is a matter of civil and human rights.”
Fact Check: By using the term “civil rights” Holder apparently was trying to identify the cause of illegal aliens with the black American civil rights movement of the 1960s. The comparison is totally false. The Sixties movement based its claims on the rights of citizens seeking equal treatment under the law. It stressed the significance of citizenship and the rule of law, by affirming that civil rights are the rights of citizens.
Holder in contrast is claiming almost the exact opposite, namely that foreigners who break our laws are entitled to become citizens in the name of civil rights. One can only conclude from this claim that Holder does not have a particularly high regard for citizenship or the rule of law either—a strange stance indeed for the highest law enforcement official in the country.
The attorney general does seem to value citizenship to the extent that he wants foreign lawbreakers to have it, but one cannot help noticing that most of the illegal aliens who become citizens and voters will add to the electoral clout of Mr. Holder’s political party. If Holder indeed has a concern for citizenship that transcends the political, it is hard to discern.
During the Sixties, many black Americans complained that they were “second class citizens.” When our government rewards foreigners who to break our laws while at the same time it requires citizens to obey laws or be punished, we have a society where all citizens, who are properly citizens, become second class.
As the significance of citizenship and law decline hand in hand, we can look forward to growing anarchy—followed most probably by tyranny. In that situation there will be no civil rights for anyone.