Apr 17 2009
U.S. Citizens Being Deported? Yes, it’s for real
I found this story from the Associated Press tonight. It’s surreal, and hard to believe that this could be happening.
Yet, it is. In my usual effort to understand both sides, I’d like to point out that mistakes do happen, especially in bureaucracies.
That being said, stories like this further bolster my convictions on immigration. Instead of cracking down on illegal immigrants already in our country, we need a three-pronged approach to the immigration issue.
1) Punish employers for hiring illegal immigrants. When we make it harder for people to make a living in this country than their own, they’ll stop coming here. As long as employers are getting slapped on the wrists, they’ll continue turning the other cheek to applicants with suspicious or missing documents.
2) Strengthen our border security. Stop these people from coming here in the first place. It is expensive, difficult, and apparently very error-prone to try to track down millions of people spread throughout our 50 states.
3) Streamline the legal immigration process. Make it worth people’s while to come here legally. Getting smuggled across our border is difficult, risky, and expensive. Offer a real alternative to people trying to come here.
Understandable or not, errors like this cannot continue. These are citizens who should be guaranteed the same rights as the rest of us by our Constitution. Unfortunately, those most likely to be mistaken for illegals are also often those with mental problems, limited English, and few economic means. They are likely to have few if any resources to fight this situation.
