By Valentina Humphrey -
Illegal immigration has been a heavily debated topic during the presidential debates with candidates from the Democratic Party trying to leverage support from ethnic minorities under one promise: to grant immigration benefits for those who have entered the country illegally.
Undocumented immigrants cross our borders every day. Detention facilities for those arrested at the borders are filled beyond capacity, and benefits such as healthcare, education, and housing, that should have been given to our citizens in need, are being diverted to assist millions of immigrants who have illegally crossed the borders over the years.
Many people argue that, under asylum law, we have an obligation to protect migrants who are fleeing serious harm. There are processes in place, such as the Credible Fear and Reasonable Fear programs that grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to people fleeing their home countries for fear of persecution or torture based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
This all sounds reasonable, some might say, but they are failing to consider that there are millions of people taking advantage of a poorly regulated system.There are even volunteer organizations such as CARA or RAICES, that advise, and even encourage, migrants to take advantage of such processes by claiming domestic violence and poverty as “serious harm.” Since these conditions can be very subjective and difficult to prove, immigrants are released, they are granted immigration benefits, and they are later eligible for residency, just because they learned how to work the system.
CARA representatives are not shy about their objective: “The volunteers of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, collectively known as CARA, joined forces in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) significant expansion of its family detention capacity.” “[CARA leads] advocacy and litigation efforts to challenge unlawful asylum, detention, and deportation policies. Advocates collect data and intelligence on DHS, ICE, and CBP detention practices with an eye towards shutting the facility down.”
They are advocating on behalf of everyone who is detained for crossing the border illegally by claiming unlawful detention policies. However, there is nothing unlawful about such practices; what would happen if we were to encourage our citizens to do the same? What if we were to start advocating for every citizen that is currently incarcerated due to a misdemeanor? Should they all be released from jails, prisons, and detention facilities? Any reasonable person knows that this cannot be done. Ultimately, crossing the U.S. border without proper documentation is a crime. So why are we allowing such concessions for undocumented immigrants?
Our immigration system is clearly flawed, and organizations such as CARA and RAICES have found a way to benefit from such deficiencies for political or financial gains by claiming to provide representation against deportation before the Immigration Courts.
Just last week, on Sunday, unidentified Catholic groups in Illinois were telling people to disregard the law by prompting them to take advantage of the subjectivity and loopholes within the legal language of these immigration processes. People claim that migrants are fleeing crime, violence, and poverty in their home countries, but that does not justify placing such a burden on the taxpayers, whose contributions end up financing these immigration programs.
The reality is that we have plenty of violence in the streets of Chicago and there are millions of citizens who live in poverty in our country, so why are our representatives not addressing these needs?
Our country does not have the resources to take care of its own people, and when Democrats, and organizations with clearly-biased agendas, expect us to take care of the rest of the world, it affects hardworking citizens who are trying to provide for their families.
Americans are tired of the government not listening to their concerns and it is time to stop glorifying illegal immigration and sanctuary states, and it is time to change these immigration practices and start taking of our people.
One can only hope that under the new administration, these problems can be finally solved.
Valentina Humphrey is a criminologist, writer and concerned citizen actively involved in the Chicago area community.
