I am not talking about the immanent ice storm bearing down on this “great” state of Texas. It’s the enforcement of immigration laws where the problem lies. Stay with me here….
There are really two sets of immigrants that are in the US: Those that came unlawfully and those that didn’t. Yet, ICE is sweeping up both sets of immigrants without distinguishing between them, or even wanting to make the distinction. Before you think I am soft on illegal immigration, I am not. I understand that there are folks that are in a world where their daily existence is threatened by thugs and criminals. They are anxious to find a way out. Given the direction the US is headed, I wonder if I would like to find a more accommodating and more democratic place to live (Canada would be an alternative), but if I did decide to flee to Canada, it would be through whatever legal means that Canada provides. I have no interest in breaking the law in Canada to live there. But imagine that I did choose to go the legal route to permanently enter Canada. Did the paperwork, got scheduled for a hearing, was given temporary permission to enter while I waited for the process to grind through. I gave Canadian Immigration officials info on where I would temporarily live and I minded my P’s and Q’s while there. And then, Mark Carney goes off the rails and says “All immigrants OUT!” and I get dragged out of my temporary home and put into a detention center while waiting for deportation. I don’t know about you but if Canada had offered me refuge, processed my paperwork, given me permission to stay and then sent immigration thugs to throw me out, I would have felt betrayal and wondered just what kind of country goes back on it’s word. Why choose injustice when promised justice? I would label that as a lack of integrity and certainly an abrogation of established law. Mostly I’d be asking “What the …..?”
That is my objection to the current ICE raids on immigrants in this country. Whether you agreed with it or not, the Biden administration didn’t just “open the border” to immigrants. They put together a process, framed in due process, that allowed immigrants to come into the country and then await their day in court to sort out their status. They weren’t “illegal”. They had filled out the “paperwork” in an app, awaited their time to cross, came to the US sharing their information and where they were going e.g. “documented” and then waited as directed. Again, they followed a process lawfully that, behind the process was a promise: That they would be given a chance to make their case and stay. This was a promise by the US, not the Biden administration, not the Trump administration, but by the United States.
The breaking of that promise just shows how low this current administration will go to get it’s way. Having no regard for justice, or promises, and completely lacking integrity, this administration doesn’t care at all for past commitments. And THAT is what I object to most of all. We need secure borders. We need ways to determine who has come here without permission and send them back. But when WE invite and process folks so they can find some peace and possibility of staying here legally, we are obligated to carry through.
Breaking promises is simply something that an authoritarian country like Russia does, not the United States of America.