Opinion: Where’s all the love for undocumented citizen companions?

I’m a Quaker, a liberal and, for over 3 decades as a lawyer, litigated civil rights cases on the behalf of people whose rights were violated. All those who entered this country in violation of the law and without permission are here illegally. They broke the law by coming into this country. They continue to regularly and routinely violate the law by driving without a license and, more seriously, by using forged or stolen identification to procure goods, services and money through employment. They are not ‘citizens’ which means being a lawful resident of a country. They are criminals who should not be allowed to reap the rewards of their crimes which would be remaining in this country. They have already demonstrated that they have no respect for the laws of the land. They are illegally present in this country. They are aliens as the term is correctly used which means they are not citizens of the country but citizens of an alien land. By their conduct, they are criminals and lawbreakers.The law does not becuse a thief for stealing because he needed food or clothing. There are no excuses for criminal conduct that negate the existence of the crime.Call them what they are. All of these mealy-mouthed phrases only serve to infuriate those of us who believe in the rule of law and stiffen opposition to anything short of arresting and deporting them.

Thank you for the opinion in today’s LA Times. I am one of those people who ‘take the rule of law seriously’. ‘Undocumented citizen’? That is an oxymoron, a contradiction of terms, spoken by a moron!!!! I am sick and tired of all the rhetoric constantly thrown about by illegal immigrants who have thumbed their noses at the immigration laws by knowingly and willingly entering the country illegally. They are not citizens. They violated our laws, thereby classifying themselves as criminals, whether they like it or not.

Thank you! It is incredibly refreshing to read that someone on the Times editorial staff acknowledges the real issue driving the vast majority of us opposed to concessions to illegal immigrants. If our immigration laws were immoral, I would join the fight against them, but rather, we have perhaps the most generous immigration laws in the world. If it is okay to ignore and discard universally accepted immigration laws, what other laws shall we ignore? If I could decline to pay any taxes, for example, I could spend more money and personally and directly contribute more to the economy. And speaking of immigration laws in other countries, Mexican immigration code per Ley General De Población, Article 123, states: ‘A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally.’

Dear Mr. McGough,Thank you for a perceptive editorial - it helped me to recognize why despite sympathizing with the undocumented, I often find myself seriously questioning that sympathy after discussions with their supporters. Not unlike the charactacter in Brideshead Revisited who gives up on becoming a priest because he finds he has the effect of repulsing people from the Church.Incidentally, during the World War II incarceration, the federal government at times referred to Japanese Americans as ‘Japanese aliens and non-aliens’ to obscure the second generation’s citizenship status.Thanks again

Mr. McGough’s claim that Bush’s approach to immigration is the ‘worst example’ of his lack of seriousness about the rule of law - in the face of his issuance of ‘signing statements’ on over 800 acts of Congress, and his gutting of the separation of powers and the Bill of Rights, would be laughable if it weren’t so terribly frightening. Don’t worry, at some point, if we continue to go in the direction this administration is taking us, no one will want to come here anyway.

I have heard this argument about the use of the term illegal alien until blood runs from my ears. Those who claim to be proponents of the rule of law in using this term disgrace not only the rule of law but also portray a prejudice that they seem alarmingly blind too. It is one thing to call a person an illegal alien once a determination as been made by immigration officials. If this is what they mean than it is accurate but strangely so. We rarely refer to any other law breaker as a ‘illegal’ blank. We don’t call President Bush an ‘illegal’ President though he proudly asserts that he has committed any number of acts that by any reasonable understanding of our shared common law traditions are illegal. We don’t call the Catholic church illegal because they have been found responsible for neglecting the safety of their young parishioners.The mere commission of a crime, or a civil liability generally does not transform one into an illegal in our society. But often the term is used were it is clearly inappropriate. If we find a man in bank with a gun and a bag of money with marked by the bank, we call him a suspect. But if we find a group of brown skinned Spanish speaking individuals in the desert without identification the press often refers to them as illegal aliens. Anybody who has lived in a foreign country themselves knows that immigration law is a good deal more complicated than the laws regarding armed robbery. Though the vast majority of these people have entered the country illegally, until it is sorted out by the folks at Homeland Security they are indisputably undocumented individuals and we don’t know what else. As for the rule of law. Some laws are so wrong breaking them is ones duty. We used to make heroes out of East Germans who broke the law to make their way into West Germany. It boggles the mind that our huge agriculture companies can flood Mexico with state subsidized grains throwing their people into poverty but once impoverished those people can’t come here looking for some menial job. Companies can come and go as they please leaving ruin in their wake and we are told we can say nothing against it. My family is European to the last drop but for some reason the Home Office in Croyeden felt no compulsion about inviting me to leave. I am willing to say what has to be said. People are more important than corporations. Laws restricting immigration are always wrong. Breaking them is an honor I plan to avail myself of at every opportunity.