ONE GREAT mandate of column-writing is supporting the little guy, but what if the little guy is in the wrong?
The reaction to last month's column on immigration was overwhelmingly against illegal immigrants, who portray themselves as the little guy. And they are.
The only e-mail I got in their behalf was from one of them, Harold, whose name I'm withholding because he fears being deported - even though only a tiny number of them are sent home.
I will condense the points Harold made in several e-mails, as fairly as possible:
He arrived 18 years ago with a one-year visa at age 15, liked it here, overstayed his visa and then had "no way" to become legal. (He could have returned home to apply, lawfully, as millions of others do.) He tried to get citizenship through marriage, but the marriage broke up and now he's a single father with a home he owns, a car, a driver's license, insurance and two kids in Catholic school. He sounds like a good American, but is he a good citizen?
He sees proposed House Bill 4321 as providing amnesty to "those who follow the law, up to date in taxes (if able to pay) and have been in the country for more than five years. What's wrong with that?" (Harold didn't "follow the law" to get here and non-enforcement of the law will be a magnet for more lawbreakers.)
Harold says that it takes a long time and money to get permission to get in now. (True. Others still do it. Harold opted not to.)
He says that the laws were different when my grandparents came across. (Yes, but they obeyed laws of the time. Laws then permitted child labor and segregation. Now they don't. We have to obey current law.)
"I did come here legal, but overstayed," says Harold. "I didn't jump the border or did anything illegal to get in!" (Harold acted just as illegally as a border-jumper.)
"We're not hurting, killing, or attacking anyone!" (A common alibi, it ignores that he is here illegally. It is a selfish attitude: I want what I want for me from America, and I don't care about its rules.)
"I understand some people don't like change or immigrants, but some of us, I think deserve a chance."
People like me, Harold, don't dislike immigrants. We like immigrants who respect our laws.
