by Lisa H Warren

Created on: June 04, 2007

If I break into my neighbor's house should my neighbors then leave me a key, a floor plan, and a list of valuables? Suppose I had a "good reason" for breaking in. Suppose, for example, their house were nicer than mine and their refrigerator contained better food than mine. What if I broke in because I wanted to get food for my kids? Would that "good reason" for my illegal act mean they should leave me that key?

There is a road map to US citizenship for people wishing to come to the US legally, just as there is a set of things people can do to find a better place to live and have better food in their refrigerators. Are those things always easy? Of course, they are not. Neither, however, was it easy for those imaginary neighbors with the better house to get that better house. Most of the time, when someone has a better place to live it is the result of struggle and hard work.

There is no excuse for disregarding the road map to US citizenship that already exists. There are immigration laws and reasons for those laws, and when someone (or a few hundred thousand "someones") decide for themselves that there is no need to comply with the laws of a country that shows that whoever decided they didn't need to comply with a country's laws is someone who, for whatever reason, cannot and/or will not take laws seriously.

Not only should there be no so-called "road map to U.S. citizenship" for people who have already disregarded immigration laws, but their actions should cause them to forfeit any possible chance of ever becoming a U.S. citizen. Whenever the "they're-doing-it-anyway- and-at-least....." school of thought is used in making policies/laws the outcome isn't usually a positive one.

A road map aimed at documenting illegal immigrants and allowing them to work may make some sense. A road map back to their country of original would certainly make sense. A guidebook on handling the different types of circumstances under which a person has become an illegal alien would make sense. After all, some people are more "innocent" than others when it comes to why they are illegal. In general, though, the penalty for deciding to disregard the law should be forfeiting any chance of ever becoming a U.S. citizen while, at the same time, having U.S. authorities very permanently present in the lives of anyone found to be an illegal immigrant.

I am not without compassion for people who "only want to feed their families", but the reality is that the world is full of people who, unfortunately, have trouble feeding their families; and - awful as it is that the world has such tragedy - that does not and cannot give people the right to skirt the laws, be given a break, and drain U.S. resources to the point where the U.S. will no longer be a country worth disregarding immigration laws over.

If an illegal immigrant has some special and unique circumstances which amount to not blatantly and intentionally disregarding U.S. immigration laws then maybe it is reasonable that such a person be given some kind of break with regard to being treated too much like a criminal. Those who have blatantly and intentionally just crossed U.S. borders, however, should be deported when possible; and when that isn't possible should be treated as criminals who are on probation and/or parole are treated.

I wish - with all my heart - there were a way to make sure all people had decent food, housing, medical care, and education in this world but breaking U.S. laws is not the way to solve those problems and is, in its own way, a road map to disintegration of the U.S. as we know it.

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