Press "Enter" to skip to content

Illegal is Still Illegal

There is no doubt that Mayté García sounds like an impressive young woman, and it is not her fault that she was brought into the the country illegally at the age of six. However, this still isn’t right:

The first person to question Democratic candidates at the Heartland Presidential Forum on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, is scheduled to be a 22-year-old undocumented [read:illegal] immigrant from Santa Fe.

Mayté García, a volunteer and board member of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, an immigrants-rights organization, said she will ask the candidates what they plan to do about immigration reform in their first hundred days in office. She said she has a speech prepared but hasn’t decided how to word the question.

“I want (the candidates) to know there is a broken immigration system for families such as mine,” García said.

Ms. García’s problem is simple. Her mother broke the law and entered the country illegally. Lax enforcement of the law allowed her family to stay and grow roots, and now she says our immigration system is broken.

What’s broken is a system that allowed Ms. García to stay in the country for 16 years illegally. What’s worse is that they are going to put her on a national stage in an attempt to manipulate the conversation. Just because she is a good person, does not mean that the laws of the land should be discarded because they are inconvenient for an individual. If we were to do this in every case, anarchy would ensue.

Ms. García has had a unique opportunity. She has taken full advantage of the opportunity. If she really wants to make a difference, her efforts should be focused on solving the problem at its source in Mexico. Take what she has learned back to Mexico and become an activist there to improve living conditions, so that people don’t have to leave their homes in order to get a chance at a better life.

Ask the big political donors on both sides of the aisle who support amnesty to focus their financial resources in the countries that are bleeding people in search of a better life in the U.S. It is ridiculous to think that people can only live good fulfilling lives if they are lived in the U.S.