Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).A senior U.S. border patrol official was charged on Friday with hiring illegal immigrants to clean her home and advising one of them on how to avoid detection by the authorities.I don’t know whether to call it hubris, stupidity, or what. Assuming the charges are true, stories like the one above are yet another example of why we need comprehensive, and fair immigration reform.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security charged Lorraine Henderson, port director for southern New England, with employing an illegal immigrant from Brazil in her Salem, Massachusetts home, following a sting operation.
Henderson, who worked for the department's Customs and Border Protection arm, continued to pay the woman for more than two years, even after a colleague warned her not to, according to court documents.
When the unidentified Brazilian woman asked Henderson for advice on her immigration status, Henderson told her, "You have to be careful, cause they will deport you."
Henderson also advised the woman, "don't leave (the country) ... cause once you leave, you will never be back."
Sadly, those with the power to do something about it prefer to live with their heads in the sand and allow the same broken system to continue. There’s the hope that that could soon change, but the cynic in me doubts it. Such is the sad reality of the immigration debate.
(Just in case you didn’t catch it, here’s the inspiration for the title to this post.)
Image- boston.com (Freight ship traffic at the Port of Boston)
Sources- AP, Wikipedia, Reuters
You know, I often wonder how many more like that DHS official are actually involved one way or another with illegal immigrants. I ask the question because in this "debate" there's a lot of talk about deporting all 12MM illegal immigrants because they are criminals that broke the law by coming here illegally. You know, that's true, but those who gave them jobs broke the law too, didn't they? Those who sheltered them, even knowing that they are "criminals" also broke the law.
ReplyDeleteIf you know that your neighbor is an illegal immigrant and you not only look the other way, but help him in any way (like renting him an apartment, giving him a ride to a job... you know, the kind of things we usually do for our friends), are you an accomplice on his/her "crime" an so liable to be prosecuted? My point is, those who are proposing a hard line and want those 12MM immigrants deported, would they advocate the same hard line toward their "accomplishes"? Yeah, I know that's a lot of time and effort, but justice is expensive... or you could have real immigration reform and actually deal with the root of the problem...
Therein lies the difficulties with the immigration debate. It's a complex issue that cannot be solved with oversimplified options like mass deportations or the equally inept choice of amnesty-for-all.
ReplyDeleteYour point on "accomplices" is one that should be considered. If I help an illegal immigrant does that automatically make me a criminal? Does it depend on the degree of assistance? What happens if one helps an undocumented immigrant without having know his/her status ahead of time?
These and other questions like those you posit need to be tackled for serious (and much-needed) immigration reform to occur. Whther those on the extremes of the debate like it or not, a compromise will have to be hammered out that can hopefully be the fairest solution.