OPINION: Mass deportation “betrays our national ideals”

By Ian Linker | The Save Jersey Blog

There has been much talk lately about a certain “Republican” presidential candidate’s plan to deport the more than 11 million illegal aliens in this country and their children, many of whom under current interpretation of the Constitution are citizens merely because they were born here. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that so many Americans seemingly support this plan.

After all, throughout America’s history, segments of our population varying in size have been nativists, xenophobic, or bigoted.

But it does. How so many Americans can support deportation astonishes me.

ImmigrationBut putting aside the practical difficulties of executing on such a plan and the billions of dollars it will cost us, don’t we have a moral obligation as a country not to simply discard these people, many of whom are only guilty of coming to the United States illegally because they wanted a better life for themselves and their family? How can we punish their children in such a manner? How can we cast these people out into a world where many of them don’t have homes to return to?

Don’t get me wrong. These people broke the law and should not get amnesty – period. And make no mistake. We are not talking about immigration, in general. Immigrants built this country and made it great. Illegal immigration is a different ballgame. But I digress.

Is it really amnesty if we make illegals pay for their transgression – a fine, perhaps? Indeed, government imposes fines all the time to punish those who break the law. Why is it any different in the case of illegal aliens? It isn’t.

Even if we can’t agree on how to deal with the illegals already here, there are plenty of things we can and should do to end the wave of illegal immigration and discourage those here illegally from staying. We must do more to secure the border. We must deport the illegals who commit crimes here – even minor offenses – and do more to ensure they never re-enter the country. We have far too many criminals of our own. We must shut down the so-called sanctuary cities. We must remove the incentives under the law for people to enter and stay illegally, including making it harder for employers to hire illegal aliens and to punish those that do and eliminating the government benefits illegals can get at the local, state, and federal levels of government.

And for crying out loud, we must enforce the law.

We must not lose sight of the consequences of our actions. Our government has turned its back on this burgeoning crisis for decades. There is much we can and should do, but we are better than this. Deporting millions of illegal aliens because we have finally awoken to the problems of having them here betrays our national ideals and should be rejected.

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Ian Linker
About Ian Linker 10 Articles
Ian Linker is a former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. He espouses limited government, individual liberty, free markets, lower taxes, fiscal responsibility, a strict interpretation of the Constitution, and the rule of law. Ian is a student of history and practices law in New York City. He has argued appeals for his clients in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits. He is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School in New York City, and received a degree in finance from the University of Arizona. Ian lives in Bergen County with his two children.

25 Comments

  1. What ideal? The US has utilized a liberal immigration policy as needed as an economic tool. As the need lessened, so did the openness of the process. We no longer need large numbers of immigrants to settle the continent, so clearly we will need to further adjust the use of that tool as time goes on in order to maintain a quality of life acceptable to our citizens. There is no need to romanticize immigration law as if it were some kind of glorious activity. The Statue of Liberty shines the light of liberty on the world. She is not a porch light saying “Come on in!”

  2. What betrays our national ideals is that Obama wipes his a$$ with the US Constitution.

    As for illegal immigration and deportation – I don’t get why people feel that people who came over here ILLEGALLY have a right to be here. That being said – mass deportation is not practicle. We do however need to eliminate sanctuary cities, deport any felons who are illegal aliens, control the border and work toward making CHILDREN who were ILLEGALLY brought over by their parents into citizens. We csn not however use that latter suggestion as an excuse for people to flood into the US.

    The movement of illegal immigration into the US has to be stopped first – BEFORE granting existing illegal immigrants any types of benefits such as a move toward citizenship. Many people wait years and decades to come to the US LEGALLY and it is NOT fair to them to have illegald jumping the line.

    We should reestablish the immigration processing centers, like what we had with Ellis Island, and immigrants must show that they will be a productive member of American society. When people are just handed something – there is no value in it. We must restore the value of being an American citizen and what it means to be an Ametican citizen.

  3. Just cut off any aids to the illegals, even stop paying for illegal mom to give birth on U.S. soil or refused to let them come to hospital to give birth…. Without papers… They would return to their home or find a way out of USA by their own…. That’s all to it…
    We already are bankrupt with the illegals here and need to stop giving hands to them… damn it…

  4. no, that’s totally nonsense… we turned away millions at Ellis Island for having flees, we had immigration restriction laws our entire time, we restricted the Chinese, had operation wetback… Our history is not on the statue of liberty, it’s in actual books, i suggest this author read one.

  5. “And for crying out loud, we must enforce the law.”

    So what laws am I allowed to break? I too, simply want a better life for myself and my family.

    If I stopped paying taxes I would have a lot more money and could have a much better life.
    If I stopped obeying the speed limit when I drive I would have more time to spend with my family.

    Who gets to decide what laws to follow and what laws to ignore? Where does it stop?

    Because most of the illegals are from Mexico and South America I am a bigot if I want the laws enforced? How does that make sense?

    And why am I responsible for the difficulties these people and their families will experience if deported? Don’t you think they understood the risk when they came here illegally?

    And what about all of the legal immigrants. That followed the rules and came here in the light. How is it fair to them?

    If you don’t like the laws or think they are unjust then we have a process that you can follow to get the laws changed. You can’t just pick and choose the laws you will follow without consequence.

    “And for crying out loud, we must enforce the law.”

  6. It is a shame that our elected leaders over these past 35 years have chosen to allow the immigration system to hurt everyone. They prefer the current system of having a second class citizenry. They have chosen to grow the welfare class and the illegal immigrants in the USA. Weak leadership / cowardly leadership.

  7. Another talking head with bullshit in it. Where is this mandate to deport them all at once by force coming from? This is a straw man. There is no xenophobic and nativist sentiment in seeing illegal immigrants gone. Enforce the present laws. Remember that they were once a “reform”. You don’t have to physically touch everyone – heads of households deported will draw the rest with them by default. Seize their illgotten property and it will send a message to the rest to bail. As one who who went through Catholic schooling and the military, making an example of and mass punishment are as apple pie and mom to America. BTW Linker was a candidate for about 3 seconds.

  8. Completely disagree. Ike went after illegals. He sent task forces into different states, rounded up thousands and deported them. While doing that, thousands started self deporting, because they new he was not messing around. Then came Kennedy with a more relaxed attitude, as well as Reagan and it has been steadily exploding ever since. We are a country of laws and we the people deserve to be protected from invasion. It will never stop because we are not respected. What about all the people waiting in line to come here legally? This is a no brainer!

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