by Hana Salik

Created on: April 21, 2008

What responsibility to illegal immigrants should a country have? This question is the subject of public debate in the US as well as many other countries. Currently most countries have policies which are most beneficial to themselves and to their own inhabitants. Some countries deny illegal immigrants any rights whatsoever and take actions aimed at expelling them while other countries just ignore the subject altogether. None of these approaches take into account the needs of the illegal immigrants themselves and thus they are morally unacceptable.

With the spread of wars all over the world the problem of refugees (who often are illegal immigrants) is becoming increasingly urgent. Since the problem is international it should be handled by an international body, namely the United Nations. It is essential that the United Nations set at least the basic principles for dealing with this problem and establish institutions to supervise the situation of illegal immigrants in every country.

Illegal immigrants, even though they broke the law, are human beings and as such are entitled to the same human rights that every human being is entitled to. These rights include first of all protection from crime. Since the host country bears responsibility for every event that takes place within its borders, it is its duty to protect anyone who is currently there regardless of his or her citizenship status. Furthermore, many illegal immigrants are victims of crime who were smuggled, sometimes against their will, into the host country for profit. Every country should vigorously fight such human traffic practices and punish the culprits severely. Furthermore, deportation of illegal immigrants has to be based on a court decision where the accused is entitled to be legally defended. It goes without saying that the government of the host country itself should be forbidden from persecuting or harassing illegal immigrants, and such actions should be considered criminal and be subject to prosecution and punishment.

Another principle which has to be adopted is that children must not be punished for their parents' crimes, and thus have to be granted the same rights as any other child, including mainly the right to education and basic social services.

It is hard to accept the current situation in the US since it is practiced by an administration which accepts its moral obligation to refugees in other countries such as Sudan. However, in spite of the administration's efforts to solve, at least partially, the problem of illegal immigrants by passing proper legislation, the anti-immigration forces in Congress and elsewhere are adamant in their opposition to it. This is an unfortunate state of affairs which may lead to the same kind of consequences that racism led to. Is this the spirit that inspired the writing "Give me your tired, your poor...." on the Statue of Liberty?

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