Immigration and the Law

In discussing the issue of immigration, the Intermountain Jewish News (5/12/06) presents the ethical, practical, political, cultural and racial considerations but neglects to include existing legal concerns. First and foremost, America is a country of laws and currently, unless a person follows the path to legal immigration, an undocumented worker is breaking the law. Do people aspire to be like those who cut in lines or bypass traffic jams by driving on the road’s shoulder? Should we grant amnesty to bank robbers and dead-beat dads because they just want to improve their economic status? Aren’t tax-cheats and embezzlers just trying to live the American dream? Do illegal immigrants who parade around with signs saying, “I am not a criminal” make them any the less a criminal? Would we accept such nonsense from a child molester or plagiarist and forgive them their transgressions without enforcing the rule of law?
While it is true that we as a society have allowed illegals to overrun our country for almost 20 years, having turned a deaf ear to this problem, does not mean that immigration laws don’t exist or should not be enforced.
As to the “we were strangers in the land of Egypt and therefore know what it’s like to be immigrants”, those forty years wandering in the desert, in essence, fulfilled G-d’s legal citizenship requirements. Meanwhile, European Jews immigrating to America entered legally though Ellis Island and not in the back of some coyote’s pushcart. Jewish tradition teaches respect for G-d’s law and the laws of the land(s) in which we live – any departure from this history portends a nefarious political purpose presented under the pretext of Jewish concern for poor people.