Reading all that has been written about immigration and the rule of law from lay persons as well as “experts” in the fields of constitutional law and immigration, I have wondered what more could possibly be said. It would seem that every base has been covered: we want secure borders, we like low prices, we hate the poor being exploited for the sake of cheap lettuce but we like relatively inexpensive produce. We hate the undue burden placed on the welfare system by those illegal immigrants who happen to be pregnant when they cross the border and giving birth to US citizens before we’ve had a chance to deport them and their unborn children, we wonder “what part of ILLEGAL is misunderstood”, and we hate that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are seemingly playing to the “immigrant crowd”. We want our nation of laws to be fair, but we hate the shameless way members of Congress seem to be delaying the inevitable while pandering for favor with minority voters.
What finally struck me as unique, however, was a letter written to a newspaper’s editor in which the writer had insisted that US laws are intended exclusively and specifically for US citizens. The writer had maintained that law and order and the protections afforded us by this same constitution was a privilege intended for those select few who could honestly call themselves US citizens.
Was the US Constitution, as well as the Declaration of Independence, designed and written to be an exclusive document to be applicable only to a specific people, or were these documents meant to serve as rules of law and order for a nation as well as documents of emancipation in which “ALL men (and not exclusively Americans) are created equal”? I happen to think we can be a nation of laws and maintain the integrity of that law while also recognizing that these documents serve a dual purpose. Not only are there rules of law defining our system of government as a means of protecting citizens from a heavy-handed dictatorship, but there are also rules defining the dignity of man and the sanctity of life regardless of citizenship status.
It is short-sighted and immoral to suggest that the dignity of the human person is protected only by US law and meant exclusively for US citizens. We have become US citizens ONLY by choices our parents made. Had we been born in, say, Mexico, would we be clamoring for a chance to cross the Rio Grande and find a better life in the US? What sort of claim do we have on this nation beyond the fact that our mothers gave birth to us here?
The Torah constantly reminds us that we are subject to the ultimate authority of YHWH and that part of our obligation as citizens is to welcome the stranger as one of our own since we were “once strangers in a strange land”.
Still, a nation must control its borders but according to the principles of our immigrant past, what must we protect ourselves from? Yes, 9/11 changed our perceptions about almost everything foreign, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that those responsible for that dreadful day were in this country legally.
I was shaken from a complacent “sleep” when I was reminded by a letter writer of the immortal words on the Statue of Liberty:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flameis the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame, "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Perhaps it is for the sake of American principles and ideals that we must rethink what it means to be “one nation under God”.
What finally struck me as unique, however, was a letter written to a newspaper’s editor in which the writer had insisted that US laws are intended exclusively and specifically for US citizens. The writer had maintained that law and order and the protections afforded us by this same constitution was a privilege intended for those select few who could honestly call themselves US citizens.
Was the US Constitution, as well as the Declaration of Independence, designed and written to be an exclusive document to be applicable only to a specific people, or were these documents meant to serve as rules of law and order for a nation as well as documents of emancipation in which “ALL men (and not exclusively Americans) are created equal”? I happen to think we can be a nation of laws and maintain the integrity of that law while also recognizing that these documents serve a dual purpose. Not only are there rules of law defining our system of government as a means of protecting citizens from a heavy-handed dictatorship, but there are also rules defining the dignity of man and the sanctity of life regardless of citizenship status.
It is short-sighted and immoral to suggest that the dignity of the human person is protected only by US law and meant exclusively for US citizens. We have become US citizens ONLY by choices our parents made. Had we been born in, say, Mexico, would we be clamoring for a chance to cross the Rio Grande and find a better life in the US? What sort of claim do we have on this nation beyond the fact that our mothers gave birth to us here?
The Torah constantly reminds us that we are subject to the ultimate authority of YHWH and that part of our obligation as citizens is to welcome the stranger as one of our own since we were “once strangers in a strange land”.
Still, a nation must control its borders but according to the principles of our immigrant past, what must we protect ourselves from? Yes, 9/11 changed our perceptions about almost everything foreign, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that those responsible for that dreadful day were in this country legally.
I was shaken from a complacent “sleep” when I was reminded by a letter writer of the immortal words on the Statue of Liberty:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, whose flameis the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame, "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she with silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Perhaps it is for the sake of American principles and ideals that we must rethink what it means to be “one nation under God”.
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