If it was not such a tragic reflection of our broken immigration system, it would almost be funny.
According to an opinion piece by Ruben Navarrette, Jr. that appeared on cnn.com: “In one sense, I feel sorry for illegal immigrants. They make the decision to come here, even if it means breaking the law. I won’t defend that. But still, we play with their lives, and we play with their heads. They must think Americans are loco. We confuse them with mixed messages. It starts with the two signs at the border: “Keep out” and “Help Wanted.” We all but beg them to work for us, and then too often we abuse and exploit them as if we rue the day they punched in.”
Apparently some of the accused undocumented who were swept up in the Bellingham, Washington raid were released and given work authorization while awaiting the result of the government’s investigation and prosecution of their former employer, Yamato Engine Specialists. This is an improvement over the Bush administration’s deportations without Due Process, however the mixed messages and the nonsensical adjudications we have been seeing even gets me thinking that the world of immigration law is at least a little “loco”.
