Mercy for Invaders, Neglect for Citizens: The Moral Inversion Destroying America

What role should compassion play when enforcing immigration laws and dealing with illegal immigrants, particularly those who have been in the United States for a number of years?

That question came to the fore following a recent event that evolved into a well-publicized, emotion-driven debate. After dropping her daughter off at an elementary school, a woman, who as a child illegally immigrated to the country with her parents many years ago, was arrested and forcibly dragged out of her car by ICE agents after refusing to obey their orders and was then sent to an immigration detention center.

The initial reporting and public reaction centered around the ICE agents’ actions when they forced the woman to leave her car. This was followed by implications of cruelty and unfairness because she was facing deportation after living in the United States for many years. Much of the public was sympathetic to her plight and condemned ICE’s conduct.

The arrest came up during a recent dinner with our two closest friends. All acknowledged that this woman is and has been living in the country as an illegal immigrant.

I asked a question: “Does she have a criminal record and/or a pending deportation order?” The answer was “yes.”

At that point, I noted, “Then there is obviously a lot more to the story. Further, she should have cooperated with the ICE agents, and she will have a hearing before being deported. However, regardless of how she arrived in the country, she has had many years to apply for legal status. She chose to remain here illegally and should be deported.”

I could see that my friends were a bit taken aback, as they knew that I immigrated to the United States as a displaced war orphan and had assumed I would be empathetic to this woman’s plight. I told them it was because of my background and the myriad legal hurdles I had to overcome as a seven-year old child in order to immigrate to the United States and eventually be adopted and naturalized that I am unalterably opposed to leniency or granting amnesty to those who crashed the nation’s borders in order take advantage of the American citizenry. Further, with a few exceptions, such as legitimate refugee status, virtually all illegal immigrants should be deported.

I do have empathy with those seeking a better life, and in particular, the children who have been used as pawns so their extended families can illegally gain access to the societal and economic benefits of living in the United States. However, I am far more concerned about my fellow citizens and the future of my adopted country than the well-being of illegal migrants, a significant majority of whom refuse to assimilate. Thus, I confess to a lack of compassion when it comes to deporting those who deliberately entered the country illegally.

I would venture to say I am not alone in my outlook, as a vast majority of legal immigrants and naturalized citizens who have slogged through a byzantine system of legal immigration and naturalization are flabbergasted at the absurdity that has been the tolerance of increasing levels of illegal immigration in America over the past four decades.

I have long believed the purpose of any nation’s immigration policy should be based on the principle that immigration must be beneficial to the overall well-being of the country and that compassion must be limited to the acceptance of a finite number of legitimate and verifiable refugees.

Immigration policy and enforcement compromised by compassion sends a message to potential migrants from around the world—the odds of not only successfully crossing that nation’s border but of avoiding deportation once there are exceedingly high.

For many decades, America’s political parties have cynically exploited the compassionate nature of American society as they created and promoted a scenario of desperate illegal immigrants searching for a better life in the United States while deliberately conflating legal immigration with illegal immigration.

The Democrat party saw potential votes by utilizing government largess to mold the illegal population into another dependable and major voting bloc. And the Republican Party establishment, at the behest of the corporate lobby, viewed these same unfortunates as a source of cheap and easily exploited labor. Bowing to the basest of political motives, money, and votes, the borders have been essentially unsecured for nearly forty years.

Currently, the Marxist left, which has taken over the Democrat party, is now exploiting this compassionate nature by propagandistically portraying all illegal immigrants, including violent criminals, as upstanding potential citizens who are being cruelly persecuted and denied their human rights when they are arrested and deported. This anti-American cabal does not care about the welfare of these people; rather, they are using them as a means of fomenting violence and chaos in their drive to undermine Donald Trump and to further their goal of transforming the United States into a one-party socialist oligarchy.

By 2018, it was estimated that there were 22 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Since then, and in particular during the Biden Administration, another 12-15 million, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and terrorists, have freely come across the border.

Presently, there are perhaps as many as 40 million illegal immigrants in the United States. How many is enough? The majority of those here are essentially unskilled and/or illiterate. There is also a rapidly increasing number who are rabidly anti-American. Virtually all refuse to assimilate. If compassion dictates that they cannot be deported, what do we do with them and the untold millions more that will come?

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