by Jack Rosdale

Created on: January 23, 2009

The question is poorly phrased, and promotes inadequate or biased responses. I would cite a hypothetical example of an employer, a general contractor, who needs to hire a carpenter. Before him stand two applicants, one an illegal immigrant and the other an American citizen with one or more "severe disabilities". What are his disabilities? The contractor, according to the wording of this question, does not know or cannot make that distinction. But the contractor, if answering "yes" to the question, will unquestioningly hire him over a tall, strong man from Nicaragua.

This is fine if the American's disability is, say, that he is a war veteran and is missing a leg; he may still be able to move around, hammer boards, and otherwise be productive. But if his "severe disability" is, say, cerebral palsy, then the contractor has little practical or economic justification for hiring him over the immigrant. At that point, it comes down to legal issues and ethics.

At this juncture, it is important to define what we mean by a citizen so that we can adequately understand why such an employer might consider hiring an "illegal" immigrant at all. There are several sections of the U.S. Constitution, supported by a body of other laws, that define this in great and legal detail, but an analogy will better convey the ideas in the context of this article.

Imagine a club that has certain requirements for membership, certain established methods of earning and proving that membership, and that provides a number of benefits to its members. For example, members in good standing are entitled to a free dish of ice cream at the monthly meeting. Note the language and wording here: "members" are entitled the ice cream "at the monthly meeting". It does not say "attendees" of the meeting may have ice cream, although it does allow for at least the possibility that a non-member who attends the meeting may purchase ice cream. It also does not say that members get "all the ice cream that they want", nor that they can have the ice cream "any time that they want". These are important distinctions, as it is human nature to take a set of rules or circumstances and try to bend them to our own purposes and preferences.

A less hypothetical example concerns the process by which American citizens - members of such a "club" - are permitted to vote for their leaders. This is one of the benefits of membership/citizenship and is not open to all who are here, even if one is here at the time of an election, or cares

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