It Should Not Be Easier To Immigrate Here ILLEGALLY Than It Is To Legally

There is an awful uproar at the moment about Obama’s proposal for new hardship rules that would “make it easier for Illegal Aliens to apply for legal status and stay in the country if they have a spouse or parent already living here legally”.  Could someone please explain to me why we need to make it “EASIER” for people to break the law?  Regardless of the fact that the president is flouting the Constitution by going around Congress to shape legislative policy, as Washington Post conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin said, “It is especially distasteful that he is willing to provoke a constitutional furor ... as a political stunt, to boost his leftist base and pick a fight with a co-equal branch. “

That being said, I think in order to address this new proposal intelligently, we first need to understand what the old rule and the new rule mean, and what the difference is between the two.  The old rule states that when an Illegal Alien is CAUGHT (yes dear, that is the appropriate term for someone who is apprehended while breaking the law), he or she must apply for a Waiver in order to escape expedited deportation.  This “Waiver” was created after a 1996 law barred Illegal Aliens from coming back into the USA for 3 or 10 years, depending upon how long they had lived here illegally to begin with.  This barring was punitive, for disobeying our Immigration Laws.  The Waiver was never intended to be categorically given to everyone.  It was designed to allow an alternative to the law on a case-by-case basis.

In order to receive the Waiver, the Illegal Alien must prove that deporting him or her would pose an undue hardship on their spouse, children or parents (assuming of course, that the spouse, children or parents are actually legal citizens.)  The current system requires Illegal Aliens to return to their home country during the adjudication period (meaning the time it takes for the Judge to get around to looking at and approving the Waiver).  It can take an average of six months for the government to judge waiver cases. Obama’s new rule would allow the Illegal Alien to stay in the U.S. during the adjudication period.   So not only would the Illegal Alien not be required to stay out of the United States for a period of time as penance for breaking our laws, the Illegal Alien will not even be sent back to their own country to await the now seemingly “categorical” approval of a Waiver.  No, under Obama’s new ruling the Illegal Alien need ever even be “burdened” with leaving the United States at all.  And yes dear, the Waiver has become a categorical approval.  It is generally a slam dunk these days.  During the fiscal year of 2011 ALONE, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received about 23,000 hardship waiver applications.  Of those 23,000 applications about 17,000 of them were CATEGORICALLY approved.  That is a whopping 74%, for those of you who didn't do the math yourselves.
                 
 “The goal [of the new proposed legislation] is to reduce the time of separation and alleviate the extreme hardship to a United States citizen,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.  The U.S. Citizen no doubt was fully aware of AND ENABLED his or her spouse's Illegal Alien status, so just what hardship are we alleviating?  The hardship of complying with United States Laws?  Yes, that's terribly difficult, I know.  I mean, that's obvious just from the number of inmates in our prison system.  Perhaps we should consider legislation that alleviates their time of separation and hardship as well?  What?  "That's just silly", you say? Why?  Because the people who are in jail BROKE THE LAW?!?!?!?  Do we need to look up the definition of ILLEGAL?  It does not change simply because it is referring to an ILLEGAL ALIEN.

The Liberal Media has flaunted story after heart breaking story of Illegal Immigrants who have been CAUGHT.  For instance, there’s the story of Daisy – a Maryland second grader who told Michelle Obama during a televised interview that her parents “didn’t have papers”.  Three months have gone by, and yet they have not even faced a federal inquiry.  Oh, but it’s so SAD that while this family is living and working in the United States illegally, they are living “in fear”. Just what are they living in fear of, exactly?  Are they fearful that they will be punished for breaking the law?  Well that’s a crying shame.  Perhaps they should not have broken it.  Are they fearful that they will be made to leave a country which they entered into illegally?  Perhaps they should have applied legally like so many others have done.

Then there is the story of Laura Barajas, a 42-year-old stay-at-home mom in Orange County, California.  She “…is due to travel to Ciudad Juarez in two weeks to try to get her papers. She and her U.S. citizen husband are trying to stay positive, but she is afraid to leave him and their two young children behind.  ‘I don't want to be separated for a long time from my children,’ said Barajas, who came to the U.S. illegally to find work, then met her future husband and stayed. ‘I'm not going to risk taking them to a place that I don't even know after 18 years.’”  None of the stories mention that Mrs. Barajas does not specifically have to go to Ciudad Juarez, an infinitely renowned city of crime that just happens to be directly across the border.  None of the reports discuss how shameful it is that Mrs. Barajas and her husband have deliberately placed their children in this predicament, nor how shameful it is that they deliberately disobeyed the law for EIGHTEEN YEARS.  If I had failed to pay my taxes for EIGHTEEN YEARS do you think I would be given special consideration just because I didn’t “want to be separated for a long time from my children”?  Somehow I doubt it.

There are those who I'm sure will claim that I am "picking on the Hispanic population".   However, statistics state that the majority of Illegal Aliens are not only Hispanic, but directly from Mexico.   The stories that are so readily available in the Liberal Media all concern Hispanic individuals.  Is that just coincidence?  I think NOT.

Then there are those would call me un-Christian-like for believing that people who knowingly break the law should be held accountable.  “But what about the children?” these people cry.  Generally these are the same indivuals who wanted SEPARATION of Church and State during Bush's administration, but who now claim, “The Christian thing to do is to keep the families together!”   Nowhere in the Bible have I found any scripture that promotes the family unit above and beyond the adherence to both man’s laws and God’s laws.  Indeed, God was not overly concerned about preserving the family unit when He commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.  God was testing Abraham’s faith – his adherence to the Word of God, in other words God's LAW.  But where does the Bible tell us that Illegal Immigrants should be deported, you ask?  It doesn’t.

What the Bible does tell us though is to obey man’s law.  Matthew 5:17 tells us not to abolish the laws, but to fulfill them.   Romans 13:1-7 gives us guidance in Submission to Governing Authorities:
 1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.   6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. 

So in a way, that does address Illegal Immigration.  This scripture even advises that if you do wrong you SHOULD be afraid.  Illegal Aliens do not pay taxes.  They do not submit to the authorities obviously or they would not be here ILLEGALLY.  They do not honor our Country nor do they Respect our Laws.  Doubt me?  Google Mexican History - textbooks in Mexico do not recognize that Mexico lost both the Texas Revolution and the Mexican-American War.  What about the thousands of pictures of Hispanic Americans desecrating our flag and staging protests AGAINST America ON AMERICAN SOIL?  

No, it is not the children’s fault that their parent or parents have so blatantly ignored our laws.  But didn’t the parents put those children in this situation themselves?  Why should I be blamed for a parent who knowingly placed their child or children in harm’s way by forcing them to live in an illegal situation?  “The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.” Proverbs 20:7  It stands to reason that the opposite would hold true as well. 

Proverbs 22:6 “ Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  Not only should these parents be faulted for teaching their child(ren) that it is perfectly acceptable to live outside of our Laws, but if the children endure the same repercussions as their parent(s) isn’t it probable that they will then be more likely to respect our Laws in the future?

Rick Santorum has made the point before: It shouldn’t be easier to immigrate here illegally than it is to immigrate here legally.  I for one will not condone legislation nor support legislators that make it “less burdensome” on people who come to our country flagrantly disobeying our immigration laws.  I live here and I live by our laws.  I expect everyone else to do so as well, or suffer the consequences.