In Defense of the Constitution, Part II

I was originally going to write this in as part of the last “In Defense of the Constitution” post, but after I realized that, once again, my writing on the First Amendment was getting to be long and detailed enough on its own, I decided to split it up.  Originally, this post was supposed to go up about a week earlier than it has, as well; once again, life got in my way.  Anyway, back when I had intended to write this, several prominent members of the Republican Party called for an Amendment to the Constitution to essentially remove Section 1 from the Fourteenth Amendment.  Again, according to the National Archives, the section in question is:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” -Section 1, Amendment XIV, United States Constitution

In short, this section guarantees that if you were born on American soil, you are automatically a citizen.  Certain members of the GOP want to remove this section in order to combat the perceived anchor baby problem, which allegedly allows illegal immigrants to cross the border, have a baby, and get in the fast lane for citizenship.  This argument is so completely flawed that it is difficult to decide where to even begin, but I’ll start by pointing out one minor detail.

It’s Time for Immigration Reform

I’m sure just about all of you have heard about the controversial Arizona law formally known as SB1070 by now.  The law, signed over a month ago, essentially requires Arizona police to question anyone about their immigration status if they have “reasonable suspicion” that someone stopped or arrested is an illegal immigrant, according to the LA Times.  Naturally, the signing of that bill has set off a national debate around the very issue both parties wanted to avoid in this election year, and as the debate has played out, many politicians in Washington and around the country are realizing the very thing they were afraid of: that we need to tackle immigration reform now, rather than push it down the road as just about every politician wanted.

If the controversy had ended with SB1070, that would have been one thing, but since this is a fiery national debate topic you know what’s coming.  Apparently, a girl in the second grade called out the First Lady on immigration, and according to the Huffington Post, she hit the mark.  Showing more leniency toward illegal immigrants than the previous administration was one of the ideas that President Obama ran on as part of his whole “change” platform.  Well, we got that change: there are more deportations now than under the Bush Administration, and the article indicates that the rate of deportation is going up.  While it looks bad on the face of it, the truth of this figure is in the details.  In fact, while the overall number goes up, and the knee-jerk commentators on talk radio love to point at the number, the real gem in this is that the proportion of those detained and deported with criminal records is going up relative to the group of ordinary, law-abiding illegal immigrants.

A little girl at one of the First Lady’s many events around the country could be forgiven for bringing politics into focus in such a setting as a community event hosted by Michelle Obama and the Mexican First Lady, the fact is that according to the reports of the encounter, she articulates her point in a much more poignant manner than many adult commentators.  While it is easy to make her into the poster child for immigration reform, it says a lot about the state of the political landscape in America when the words of a second-grader are more effective and true than the most well-reasoned, impassioned argument by a politician or other commentator.  Though the thought of someone that young being thrust into the national spotlight and being used as a symbol of the immigration debate sickens me, the fact of the matter is that immigration is an issue that hits home for individuals, families, and their broader communities who could possibly feel a bit intimidated by all of the vitriol spewing on both sides of the debate.

Further, this child has actually performed a vital service for the country.  We can talk about the need to reform the nation’s immigration policies in the abstract as much as we like, but in truth, the little girl who politely told Mrs. Obama about her mother’s immigration-related fears added a dose of reality that the average person sitting in their living room watching the evening news could relate to.  In that moment, the immigration debate went from discussions of our shared history as immigrants and talk of civil rights and liberties to fears that a little girl could one day be snatched up by ICE agents and taken with her mother away from just about everything she knows and thrown into one of the nation’s shady detention and deportation facilities for months while the Department of Homeland Security works through the deportation process.  If nothing else, the girl’s words have put a human face on the immigration debate and have allowed all of us to hopefully take the chance to step back and question why we let the system punish those who just want to do what we all did in our family’s past, whether it was years or generations ago.