Q&A of the Day – Will Deportations Impact Established Non-Citizen Families?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.
Today’s Entry: Brian, I am not in Florida, but listen to you every morning on Iheart.com. We have people in our lives that we dearly love. They are not legal. They have been here over 20 years and their children are like our grandchildren. The oldest, born here, will be attending college next year. The youngest, also born here is also attending Catholic schools. My question is what does all the deportation talk have to do with folks that have been here a long time? I understand getting rid of the people that rushed the border during Bidens tenure, but what of the people that have been here working at legitimate businesses and paying taxes for decades? Your insight is very important in this matter. I hope you can respond or talk about it on your show.
Thank you.
Bottom Line: I appreciate your question. Having broadcast over the past twenty years in South Florida I’ve heard from many with similar considerations. It certainly is easier to ubiquitously say that we should deport all illegal immigrants than it is to consider cases, such as your friends, on an individualized basis. I’m going to address your question from two directions. I’ll start with the stated deportation plan of the Trump administration. The current ICE operations are “Targeted enforcement operations”, defined as the planned arrests of known criminal aliens who threaten national security or public safety.
For perspective, there were 1.4 million illegal immigrants who went through a legal process during the Biden administration, were court ordered to be deported but weren’t. President Trump’s executive order addressing this matter is: Protecting the American People Against Invasion. Under the order the official directive that’s currently being carried out is this:
- It is the policy of the United States to faithfully execute the immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable aliens, particularly those aliens who threaten the safety or security of the American people. Further, it is the policy of the United States to achieve the total and efficient enforcement of those laws, including through lawful incentives and detention capabilities.
For that reason, it’s unlikely that your friends would be in the crosshairs of the Trump administration's initiative over at least the near term. During the first week of detentions and deportations the only non-targets who were detained and deported were those who lacked legal status and were present with the targets at the time of the ICE detentions. Additionally, with the current legal interpretation of birthright citizenship, the children that you mentioned were like grandchildren to you are American citizens and would be protected from deportation concerns regardless of how broad they may eventually become. Now with that having been established, let’s discuss the contextual considerations that you’ve asked about...including my perspective on the matter.
You’ll often hear me talk of the premise. If the premise of anything is false, anything built on it will fail too. That's the way I view situations like that of your friends. I risk sounding heartless in breaking this down and will assure you that I’m not, but I am a person of principle. I’ll use two analogies, one that’s rooted in law, and another – as you mentioned one of the children attends Catholic school, that’s a faith-based perspective.
If a person successfully violates the law one time but is caught and is prosecuted, does it make them more guilty than a person who violates the law daily for many years but who successfully evades authorities? How long should one be able to engage in illegal behavior before we’re as a society, law enforcement included, decide it’s ok? And that’s the point. If you embrace a false premise, the problem will persist.
Breaking the law for an extended period of time doesn't at some point make it ok. If anything, the extended illegal behavior may complicate matters – as the example of the family you’ve described would apply. As for the faith-based perspective...
If you sin long enough, there’s nowhere in the Bible where God at some point suggests...well you've been sinning that way for a long time, so I guess it's ok now. There’s never a time in which sin is acceptable and extended periods of sin, especially when one is aware of the sin, only makes matters worse in the eyes of God.
And so, the point is whether it’s God’s law, or man’s law, breaking it for an extended period doesn’t make it ok. Over the prior twenty years, your friends made a series of choices that seemingly have worked out to their benefit to this point. It remains a choice to still continue down the path they’ve traveled without seeking a fully legitimate/legal means of being here. With compromised choices, there can be unfortunate outcomes.
The Biden administration was a case study on the selective interpretation of laws. I don’t fault the Trump administration for expressed consistency in enforcing laws.
Ronald Reagan didn’t make many policy errors in my view; however, this was one of them. President Reagan went along with amnesty accepting the premise of the example you've provided. All that proved to do was further incentivize people seeking to unlawfully enter the country. It set the president and expectation that if people could establish themselves here illegally, they'd be allowed to stay. The only way to stop illegal behavior is to end the rewarding of the practice.
I genuinely wish your friends and their children well.