I would like to see more legal immigration. I’m optimistic about the ability of American society to welcome, find a place for, and assimilate those who wish to join our 230-year experiment. But note the qualifying adjective. We are a nation founded upon the primacy of law. If the laws are openly flouted, and the State won’t enforce them, then the voluntary compliance that is at the heart of our system will erode. Rules apply to thee but not to me.
If the State won’t enforce laws against illegal immigration, maybe it won’t enforce others. Scofflaws will scoff and wrongdoers will wrong. Police will be overstretched, if they aren’t already. (From daily observation there are many people who don’t fear getting caught for speeding, running red lights, or driving through crosswalks containing pedestrians).
That’s why I sympathize with the Minutemen, the group of volunteers who patrols the southern border. They are helping to enforce the law that various government agencies can’t or won’t. But what if the Minutemen armed themselves and started to shoot people who are attempting to cross? Our police would be obliged to stop them.
Imagine that our law enforcement looked the other way, perhaps because they were too weak or because they agreed with the group’s objectives. The Minutemen, emboldened, started firing heavy weapons, including rockets, deeper into Mexico. Most of us would agree that the Mexican military would be within its rights to cross into U.S. territory and force a halt to this violence against Mexican citizens and property. Death and destruction will reign on both sides of the border, the result of a weak State that could not enforce its authority over a powerful armed private group operating on its territory.
I am only speaking hypothetically, of course. This is the 21st century, and we are past such things happening. © 2006 Stephen Yuen
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