"... A democracy where the will of the people is embodied in laws duly passed by our elective representatives."

'People ought to obey the law' May 2, 2006
BY PETER K. NUNEZ

As Congress struggles once again with the issue of illegal immigration, a variety of voices argue that those who have knowingly and willfully violated this country's immigration laws should be granted amnesty and be allowed to remain in the United States and acquire the full legal, economic and political benefits that this country has to offer, notwithstanding the various criminal acts they have committed. Why anyone would believe such a thing is hard for many of us who believe in democracy, the rule of law and basic fairness to understand.


The fact that my father immigrated legally to this country when he was 4 years old does not disqualify me from believing that people ought to obey the law. Nor does it require me to believe that those who disregard the law should be praised, glorified, excused, accepted, condoned, approved or pardoned for their lawlessness. Anyone with the most basic level of education -- whether learned in school or in church -- knows that we are bound to obey the law, especially in a democracy where the will of the people is embodied in laws duly passed by our elected representatives.

Those advocating for amnesty do so either out of ignorance or self-interest. Certainly those 12 million-plus illegal aliens want to remain here for all the obvious reasons, as do their families and friends. But so do the special interests that benefit from their presence, including employers who crave cheap, exploitable labor, politicians who seek future political payback for having championed their cause, and the oligarchs who dominate governments like Mexico, which has been exporting its poverty to the United States for 40 years now, thus relieving itself of the basic responsibility of providing a decent life for its own citizens, while avoiding the nasty consequences of a large and unhappy populace. And the mass media has done a wonderful job for decades of sympathizing with these desperate people, leading many to believe that America cannot live without illegal aliens, that our economy would collapse, that we are powerless in dealing with the immigration phenomenon, and our only hope now is to give up and let them all stay.

Nonsense! The amnesty of 1986 gave us more legal and illegal immigration, at numbers that stagger the imagination: 2.7 million illegals given amnesty in the late '80s, generated unprecedented levels of immigration ever since -- almost a million a year for 15 years. What will an amnesty of 12 million produce? And what makes anyone believe that this will stop future illegal immigration? There are 4 billion people living in poverty around the world, all of whom would love to come here. Not only will an amnesty of this size undermine the basic notion of the rule of law while simultaneously violating the will of the people, but it will fuel future immigration to the detriment of those already at the bottom of the economic ladder: Those who we give amnesty today will be the victims of the tidal waves to come.

Peter K. Nunez is a member of "You Don't Speak for Me," a Hispanic coalition comprised of immigrants and children of immigrants. Nunez is also former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury and former U.S. attorney for San Diego.



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