Illegal Immigration as a License for Immoral Acts

First, Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope the holidays have treated you and yours well, and that your investments are no more than 40% down for the year.

I've been meaning to write a blog post all week about a story I read in the AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) on Monday. It seems a Mexican national (let's call him "Jose," because I don't remember, don't feel like looking it up, and because the details are irrelevant here) overstayed his visa to the United States about ten years ago and, presumably under false documents, obtained a job as a cook at a restaurant in the Atlanta area, where he has worked continuously. He eventually married, had a child, and bought a house. Because his daughter was a U.S. citizen, having been born in the U.S., the house was titled in her name. He and his family lived there until earlier this year, when they decided to sell the house and move into a bigger one. A neighbor (let's call her "Carol") whose child played with Jose's child, noticed the for-sale sign and inquired. They subsequently began to negotiate over the sale. The negotiation turned into a lease-first and then buy deal, but then ultimately broke down (presumably over essential terms like, for example, price). The woman and her daughter had, however, already moved into the house. Part of the reason the negotiations broke down was because the woman thought she was getting 3 months of free rent. Jose disagreed.

Jose demanded she leave the property. Apparently, during the negotiations over the sale of the house, Carol learned about Jose's immigration status (probably because the house was titled in Jose's young daughter's name). As Jose began to demand that she leave the property, and with the deal apparently dead, Carol began to "out" Jose. She called immigration and naturalization services. She called the police. She wrote letters to the media. She called his employer and, eventually, got Jose fired. She even wrote her Congressman. Her justification for taking this action was, well, he's in the country illegally. He's a "criminal." She was doing her duty.

What are the lessons to be gleaned from this true patriot's activities? Let's see:

Lesson One: Use any fact at your disposal to extort a business deal to your advantage.

Lesson Two: If someone is doing something illegal or is an illegal immigrant, he has no rights and you can take immoral actions that you would not otherwise against a person.

Lesson Three: The sins of the father carry to the sins of the child. You owe no moral duty to a child of an illegal immigrant. You also owe no special duty to children.

This story exposes an extra and more hideous wrinkle to the immigration debate than the hypocrisy inherent in our immigration system (i.e., let's berate and rail against the people who are building most of the roads, houses, and buildings in this country). The dangers of excessive nationalism and focus on status are on full display: one person has no rights because of his status. Jose has no right to anything in this country because of his illegal status. He is deprived of value as a human being. Carol feels she can do anything to him, because he is not a person-- or, not fully a person. This sort of sentiment is much more frightening to me than the hypocrisy, because it is the antecedent to truly destructive and vile behavior. Once a person is able to convince himself or herself that someone else is not a person (via status), the worst kind of atrocities are possible. That's how blacks were treated so cruelly in America, Jews in, really, most of history... there are many more examples.

I'm not saying that we are on the verge of genocide here in America. But this kind of feeling that because of a person's status, you have the license to do any horrible thing you want and can treat him/her as anything less than a human being worthy of respect as such is a dangerous, self-deluding thing. There are always moral duties one owes others-- regardless of what they look like or even if they've committed a crime.

Carol lost her moral focus! Likely, Carol found in Jose's immigration status an excuse for being an unscrupulous negotiator and then, when rejected, wrapped herself around the moral authority of Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs (undoubtedly, mentally grouping herself among said commentator's "heroes" of immigration) and took up the cause of illegal immigration personally against Jose. No matter her justification, she shows herself as mean and spiteful.

The resolution of the house deal, by the way, was that Jose eventually had to evict Carol. Carol had stayed in the house for 9 months and never paid any rent. Because I guess you can use an illegal immigrant's property as you like whenever you want and not pay for it. Because, like, they shouldn't even be here.