A Trump-appointed conservative Republican federal judge last week put the Constitution ahead of his political benefactor.
Judge Fernando Rodriquez ruled that the current migrant surge did not constitute an “invasion” sufficient to justify detaining and expelling migrants without hearing their side of the story.
The Brownsville, Texas-based jurist ruled last Thursday that the mere fact that alleged members of the Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua were present in the U.S. did not mean they were either here illegally or were “alien invaders” under the wartime 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
The court ruled that detainees could file lawsuits challenging their deportation to deep, dark prisons like the one in El Salvador, currently holding 140 Venezuelans who never had a chance to tell their side.
Obviously, criminals do not deserve admission to our country or our sympathy. But how do we know they are criminals? And what about obviously sympathetic individuals like the four-year-old kid with cancer whose mom was expelled the other day, and whose child now cannot get his medication?
There are thousands of similar stories. From gangbangers to ailing children, federal courts are stepping up and saying, ‘wait a minute,’ ‘who is who?’ and ‘what’s your side of the story?’ before handing down the bum’s rush or exiling people to that cellar in El Salvador.
It is one thing to enforce the nation’s immigration laws, it is another to look away and pretend we just don’t know what is happening in our name.
In almost 55 years in public life as a reporter and commentator, no issue has proven more volatile than immigration, and no issue has caused me to be more out of step with most folks who follow me.
It’s not just me. Immigration is the issue that made Trump the President. Most Americans surveyed approve of deportation, and even imprisonment without due process, to places like El Salvador, if that’s what it takes to end illegal immigration.
Even foreign students who earn advanced degrees are persona non grata once their visas have expired. So, we educate them and then export them without getting the benefit from the education we subsidized. It makes little sense.
ICE agents are cheered on by many Americans, even in blue states, despite heavy-handed tactics that have terrified many in the immigrant community. Soon, no place will be safe for those without proper documentation, not schools, not courts, not homes.
Life is already hugely disrupted in immigrant communities from coast to coast. It is painful to watch hard-working, law-abiding, family-oriented migrants being treated like they have the plague or are all hideous criminals.
When surveys are cited, proving that migrants do not increase the rate of violent crime, the statistics are dismissed as irrelevant. Bill O’Reilly and I once almost came to blows debating this contentious issue.
When ripe crops remain unharvested because there are not sufficient workers in the fields, or the meat packing or poultry processing plants go idle, even the pain of more expensive food (or childcare or landscaping or construction) will likely not change the minds of people who have zero tolerance for the undocumented.
It is like we want to burn the bridges that brought us here from the four corners of the planet to forge this unique and wonderful country.
Blame Biden for being naïve and too welcoming. He let the situation at the southern border get out of control. Cruelty is the best way to keep away the needy.
But just remember, without immigrants, there would be no United States of America. Look it up.
