Monday, April 11, 2011

There Are Two Different "Illegals"‏

Yisrael Medad

A major left-wing progressive campaign these past few years in Israel, in another effort to besmirch Israel's political and judicial system, is the specific matter of children of foreign workers, among other illegal residents, who are slated for deportation. Quite simply, despite all the emotional hype, their parents either arrived here in Israel illegally or overstayed their legal period of residency and then procreated "illegal" babies, as it were and, now with an Oscar, are seeking to stay against the law. Seems the United States also faces this problem. As this Washingtoin Post story informs, one Juan Gomez has a job offer from J.P. Morgan Chase in New York. However, he faces deportation to Colombia, a country he hasn’t seen since he was 2 years old for in 2007, immigration agents in Miami took them to a detention center. The family had lost a years-long application struggle for political asylum and ignored multiple orders to leave. Although his parents did go back to Colombia, Juan managed to avoid that move and was allowed to stay, at least until he finished college. His permission to remain in the United States extends only through next spring. And the temporary work permit he holds as a student, an I-765 visa, is more common among dishwashers than merger-and-acquisition specialists at blue-chip financial firms.

He hopes the work permit will be renewed, but there are no guarantees. He is depending on the passage of the Dream Act which

would provide conditional permanent residency to certain illegal and deportable alien students who graduate from US high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors, and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment.


The story quotes Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA and a leading opponent of the Dream Act, who blames the choices his family made decades ago.

“The reason that people like him can make the claim they are in this tough situation is because his parents were allowed to break the law by holding a job for year after year,” Beck said. “He’s a very compelling case, but because he’s getting this job, there will be an American somewhere down the line who won’t get one.”



The introduction of that bill did provide a reprieve good for the two-year duration of that Congress. But the parents were put on a plane to Bogota, and Juan and his brother haven’t seen them since.

Here in Israel, the tactic of pressure works very well. There's been a postponement of the deportation and Israel's media play it up.

The point is, though, that certain illegals merit sympathy and others, like residents of the HaYovel neighborhood in Eli or other sites in Judea and Samaria just are not afforded the same human feelings.

That's why I have trouble relating to 'humanists' and 'liberals' who are simply ideologically-driven activists, not objective rights promoters.

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