A bunch of folks snuck into our country illegally and were eventually caught and detained pending a decision of when/where to deport them. Sadly, many of these illegal adults have children in their care. In order not to separate families that have no other option (legal relatives in the US who can care for the child), the US has created special detention centers specifically for families so that they are not split up.
Sounds like our government is trying to make the best of a bad situation while still trying to enforce the immigration laws of this country.
But of course this has pro-illegal immigration activists up in arms, despite the fact that:
Children held at a controversial immigrant detention center in Taylor [just north of Austin, TX] are receiving four times as much classroom instruction as before under a change that federal officials made recently at the privately run facility.
“The primary focus of the education component is to make certain that these children are receiving the best academic structure they can during the time they’re in the facility,” Pruneda said.
Well, that sounds a shit-load better than where they came from — which of course is a big part of the reason that their parents snuck into our country illegally to begin with.
“But in the end, that’s not really the point,” Bernhardt [Rebecca Bernhardt, immigration, border and national security policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas] said. “The point is that detaining young children and their parents who don’t have any criminal violations, in some cases for very long periods of time, is just wrong.”
There they go again: the ACLU fighting hard for the rights of illegal immigrants who — wait for it — don’t have any rights in our country. The rights that the ACLU is fighting for are for US Citizens. Not illegal aliens. It’s a subtle but important distinction that is often (often, as in “almost always”) overlooked by the ACLU.
And the point, Becky (you don’t mind if I call you “Becky”, do you?) is that they all have committed a “criminal violation” by sneaking into our country illegally. Unless of course their children were born here, in which case the parents are illegal, but their children are “legal”. But that shouldn’t continue to be a “get out of jail free card” for their law breaking parents.
The illegal parents can make the choice of 1) keeping their children with them in the detention center until they are deported, 2) assign guardianship to a legal friend or relative while they are in the detention center and until they are finally deported, or 3) turning custody of their children over to Child Protective Services while they are in the detention center and until they are finally deported. Once deported, they can make the decision as to whether they want their kids to come back and join them from whence they came, or to allow them to stay in the US without them while they go through the legal channels to enter the US to be with their children.
Of course there are protesters — I’ve often maintained that Austin has one of the largest groups of otherwise-unemployed Professional Protesters in the country. And what do the protesters want?
Protesters have called on immigration officials to explore alternatives to detention.
I have an “alternative” to detention: deportation. Immediate deportation. If you are here illegally, then you and your family must go back to Mexico. I don’t even care if you’re not from Mexico — that’s where we’re sending you, since that’s probably where you entered into our country illegally. You can get back to Honduras or Nicaragua on your own from there (or, more than likely, just sneak back across the next day).
Related Posts
Email This Post
⋅
Print This Post
[IMG lol] I mean, just because it doesn’t expressly say something in the Constitution, doesn’t mean it doesn’t apply. Here’s the link today on http://www.austinbloggers.org that caught my eye: “ACLU Defends the Non-existant “Rights†of Illegal Aliens in Texas†So, what are those non-existent rights? There they go again: the ACLU fighting hard for the rights of illegal immigrants who — wait for it — don’t have any rights in our country. The rights that the ACLU is fighting for are for US Citizens.
There they go again: the ACLU fighting hard for the rights of illegal immigrants who — wait for it — don’t have any rights in our country.
I believe this is simply your opinion.
It’s also an opinion shared by our country’s legal system — thus they are being legally detained for being here illegally.
Do you really believe that non-citizens who are in this country illegally should be afforded all the rights of citizenship?
I wasn’t referring to the case actually, simply the broad point you seem to want to make that non-citizens don’t have rights: an opinion I don’t believe that the Supreme Court shares with you.
Of course illegal immigrants don’t not share all of the rights of citizens but that’s why they go to court: to draw the line somewhere between all and none.
Tell ya what, Preston. Let’s make a deal. For those who want to hire their nannies and lettuce pickers for starvation wages instead of decent working TAXABLE wages for citizens , let’s let the employers pay for their kids education, their health care and any social services they want to give them. I think that’s only fair don’t you, the American way. I get somebody to clean my house for $8/hr and I’ll take them to my doctor and pay their bill, I’ll take them to my school and pay for their education, shit I’ll take them to ‘Disneyland as long as they keep my room clean and feed me grapes in bed.
Oh wait a minute, $8/hr just got to be $28/hr. I’d rather pay them under the table and let Dianne pay for them. That’s the American Way.
SCREW THE COMMUNIST ACLU.
My favorite faux argument is that you can’t deport people who have children who are citizens otherwise there is no one to care for the kid. Duh.
Dianne- you seem to have me confused with someone has advocated the continued non-enforcement of immigration law.
Just to have said it, though I know to most who engage in this argument the facts don’t matter, most due process rights in the Constitution, certainly in the Bill of Rights, are attributed to all people or “persons”, not just citizens. That’s why you’re wrong that the “legal system” doesn’t recognize their “rights.”
Also just to have said it, the Japanese internments were considered justified at the time, and so will folks who think incarcerating five year olds in a penitentiary setting is okay justify their opinions today.
That said, even though I realize it’s probably futile, I wanted to answer Robbie’s question: “Do you really believe that non-citizens who are in this country illegally should be afforded all the rights of citizenship?” Yes I do, just like when my ancestors arrived with no pre-arranged visa or legal recognition of their “rights,” they were let in the front door. If your ancestors arrived before the 1870s, they were in the same boat – before that there were no US immigration laws (it was considered a “state’s right” until after the Civil War). Even after that most folks who came through Ellis Island, for example, had no pre-clearance, visas nor any other legal justification for being there except a desire to become Americans.
People have been migrating back and forth from the modern US to modern Mexico since Pre-Colombian times. Immigration across the southern border wasn’t numerically restricted until 1965, and the restrictions have NEVER worked. Hoping to stop immigration by drawing an imaginary line in the desert and building a wall or setting up detention camps for children shows an amazing capacity for hubris that would almost be cute if it weren’t so damaging to real people’s lives.
Uh, grits, this ain’t 1870. What relevance does your heart-warming story of your own ancestors have to do with 2007?
The detainment camps aren’t set up “for the children” or to incarcerate the children, either.
The camps are for thier illegal, criminal parents. The alternative to keeping the children with their parents is…what? Separating them? Who should watch them then? A different taxpayer-funded nanny?
I can guess as to what your “preferred” alternative is….don’t detain their illegally immigrated, criminal parents, either. Rather, just let them continue to stay in our country illegaly.
Why have a border at all, then? (wait, you just argued that we shouldn’t anyhow).
Hopefully, we will have an annual Day Without Illegal Immigrants. As has been widely noted, the commute was a dream, there was parking everywhere, very little noise, and the streets had a lot less garbage thrown on the ground (tho I am sure this was the opposite where they were demonstrating). Anway, the only thing it proved, is how much the quality of life improves with out illegal immigrants.
Repeal Posse Comitatus and put troops on the border, that’s the best, cheapest, most logical way to deal with the problem, and it would be good for the economy of the border towns where the troops are stationed and spending money. This is only a problem because it makes too good a political issue. As long as it gets votes one way or another it is going to stay a problem.
Then again, that’s why half the problems in this country never get solved in any real meaningful way. To do so would not benefit the people that are pandering to the extremes. Keeping thing the way they are now and giving lip service to the problem while engaged in futile finger pointing does.
Robbie, you wrote: “I can guess as to what your “preferred†alternative is….don’t detain their illegally immigrated, criminal parents, either. Rather, just let them continue to stay in our country illegaly.”
That’s inaccurate, I’ve argued here and elsewhere they should be given paths to citizenship, not that the status quo is good. I also believe strongly in free markets including free labor markets. Those arguing for a closed border, by definition, do not.
Finally, I didn’t argue that we shouldn’t have a border. I argued that there are obvious historical, pragmatic limits to the effectiveness of an enforcement-only policy. If you want to pretend that ineffective government boondoggles are effective just because they feel good pandering to a nativist ideology, that’s fine, but in that case, as far as I’m concerned, conservatism (certainly as a fiscal/economic alternative) has lost most of its meaning and all its intellectual consistency.
And in response to anonymous and the point about historical precedents: This is a nation of immigrants. IMO it’s hypocritical for folks whose ancestors got in under extremely lenient (or non-existent) rules to try to shut the door behind them after their family got in. If previous generations felt that way, I wouldn’t be here, and probably you, either. best,
I’m hiring, OK?
Here’s the deal. I need people to come out to my ranch, which is about 75 miles outside of Austin. You supply your own transportation. I need fences mended, rocks and boulders moved, trees cut down, stumps removed, and ditches dug. You supply your own tools. Start 1/2 hour before sunup, stop 1/2 hour after sundown. Half-hour break for lunch. You bring your own lunch. Pay is $5.00 per hour. If you don’t work hard enough, I’ll run your sorry ass off with no pay.
Positions open to White people only.
Well, here in Austin you couldn’t even get illegals to do that work “Ruralist”. Have you ever been to the Austin day labor site and tried to hire a few workers for the day?
If so, then you know that the going rate is $10/hour minimum.
Illegal aliens do not have the right to be in this country. The aclu position that they should not be detained while being deported is bullshit.
You know what — I say we cave to the ACLU on this issue.
We still have the right to detain illegal immigrants into this country. And we should stand up to them on that issue and continue to do so.
But we will no longer detain their children. We’ll put them in the care of Child Protective Services. And they’ll remain there until their parents are deported back to where they belong.
At that time, the parents can arrange to have their children sent back to them (on their own dime).
There. Problem solved.
Is anyone here really claiming that the US — as a sovereign nation — does not have the right to find, detain, and then deport illegal immigrants into our country?
Because if you do, it would make discussing and debating this issue much easier if you would just reveal your bias here: that you are an open-borders proponent.
Really, we should be dumping the kids on the social services in their own country if the aclu doesn’t want them detained with their parents.
I want to thank you for sharing such an interesting article. I understand your point of you, but what you are missing here is the fact that these children are as American as you are. They deserve every right this country offers, and it is unfair that they have to leave behind bars. I understand your feeling in regard to these people breaking the law to be here illegally, but I will tell you this much… If you were in their shoes, you would exactly the same thing to better your family. They deserve a human treatment and not a criminal like treatment. Life goes beyond any border and we are all humans before we are Americans and Mexicans.
Just food for thought
Do me a favor Gerardo- if that is your real name, fly me an American Flag instead of a Mexican one, if you want RIGHTS in my country_ and teach your kids to do the same, especially at OUR sporting events! Will I see you in that parade too, will you be wearing the Red White and Green, or the Red White and Blue?
Unless they were born here or their parents were born here and have citizenship, no they are not Americans. You act like they are being mistreated when the government has bent over backwards to accomadate them by allowing them to be detained with their parents. And if I were in their shoes, I would be doing everything I could to improve the plight of my own citizens in my own country.
Tom, Dick and Harry sneak into the US from Mexico and go to work for a builder.
Tom, Dick and Harry are offered ‘amnesty’ and become US citizens. Tom, Dick and Harry are now ‘on the book’ citizens and can collect their wages above the table and pay taxes. And they insist on this from their employer.
The builder now lays off Tom and Dick because he now has to pay one person the salary he was paying three.
Tom and Dick can’t find work because two out of three “new citizens” are now out of work also. And they have limited education, poor English skills, and have nothing to offer a new employer. Now they are on the unemployment rolls, and they are eligible for food stamps and other social services.
Their former employer now lays off Harry because three more guys show up across the border and he can go back to hiring three for the price of one.
Start over again. And again. And again.
Until there is a massive crackdown against those who hire illegal workers there won’t be any change. It’s a vicious cycle.
1950, over 1 million Mexicans sent back!
We did it then, we can do it now! Line up the pickup trucks and put them in the back, the way they got here. Make them pay of the gas as they did coming here. Slow down when they get off, it is the same way they came here. Jumping off into the bean fields of California!
Robbie writes: “Is anyone here really claiming that the US — as a sovereign nation — does not have the right to find, detain, and then deport illegal immigrants into our country?”
No Robbie, that’s the point – you’re making up red herrings to complain about and misrepresenting the views of those you’re criticizing. Nobody said that, here or anywhere. For economic and moral reasons we shouldn’t do that, but nobody has said the US has no “right” to pass such laws: just that it’s really STUPID to do so – a government boondoggle of epic proportions. Like most boondoggles, though, it’s entirely legal. That doesn’t make it right, any more than Jim Crow’s legality at the time made discrimination against black people acceptable.
“It’s the law” isn’t good enough if the outcomes aren’t just.
I’m outraged that hoards of English-speaking Canadians of British and Scottish descent are sneaking into our country and taking up our space — and nobody seems to even notice!!
If we’re not careful, they’re going to overrun this great country with their unfamiliar Canadian culture.
Why is no one paying attention to this invasion?
No, Grits, the issue was whether we have the right to detain those here illegally while they wait for their deportation hearing. We do.
Who says we’re not? Too many Canadian actors getting jobs in this country.
Their former employer now lays off Harry because three more guys show up across the border and he can go back to hiring three for the price of one.
Start over again. And again. And again.
Terr, if your parable were true wouldn’t we have an unemployment rate of about 20%?
Have you ever actually read the Constitution or studied the history of this country? The founders (and our legal system) believed that the rights outlined by the Bill of Rights were granted by GOD. The Bill of Rights simply pointed out rights that all humans already had. Thus, illegal immigrants DO have rights. However, they do not have the priveleges that come along with citizenship.