Liberals were clutching their pearls this week when Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said he was “considering” a plan to separate illegal alien children from their illegal alien parents if they’re caught sneaking across the border.
The idea of taking children away from parents who would recklessly risk their lives and subvert our laws was too much for the professional outrage class, which set out to create a domino effect of pearl clutching across the country at the prospect. To put it simply, I don’t give a damn.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish them harm. I just don’t want anyone entering this country illegally, and I sure as hell don’t want them to be rewarded. They should be sent back from wherever they came as quickly as we can find a spot on a plane bound for their homeland.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was just this side of needing a fainting couch when he asked Secretary Kelly on Monday, “Are you, the Department of Homeland Security, considering a new initiative that would separate children from their parents if they try to enter the United States illegally?”
Attempting to show why deterrence is truly the compassionate option, Kelly answered, “Let me start by saying I would do almost anything to deter people from Central America to getting on this very, very dangerous network that brings them up through Mexico into the United States.”
He is referring to the human smugglers, called “Coyotes,” who profit from sneaking people into this country in conditions that usually are abhorrent and can include abuse, sexual assault and even murder. Sneaking into the United States illegally is horrible and dangerous. But again, I say, “So what?”
We are a nation, not the Hunger Games. Difficulties incurred while breaking our laws do not make exempt you from those laws, nor should you be rewarded for enduring them.
Blitzer, showing why he finished in the negative on Celebrity Jeopardy, circled back. He asked, “If you get some young kids who manage to sneak into the United States with their parents, are Department of Homeland Security personnel going to separate the children from their moms and dads?”
Before I tell you what Kelly said, might I note how awful a parent has to be to subject their child to Coyotes? Especially the ones who came here illegally without their children, then simply sent money to some of the worst people on the planet to bring their kids here.
Kelly’s response was, “Yes I'm considering, in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network, I am considering exactly that. They will be well cared for as we deal with their parents.”
“But you understand how that looks to the average person,” Blitzer interrupted.
“It's more important to me, Wolf, to try to keep people off of this awful network,” Kelly replied. And he’s right.
The Blitzers of the world would prefer to swing open the gates of this country, but we simply can’t, nor should we. If parents are willing to risk the lives and safety of their children, they shouldn’t have their children. At least not in this country. In a time when parents could lose their children for letting them walk home from the park alone, why should illegal aliens be treated better for much, much worse?
I understand they’re leaving a hell-hole and want better lives for themselves and their children. But how about focusing the energy they expend coming here illegally on improving their country? I’d support them in their efforts to wrestle their nations from corrupt and despotic regimes that leave resource-rich nations wallowing in poverty because of ineptitude and fraud. But they don’t get a ticket punched to the greatest country on the planet just because theirs is awful.
Let us not pretend those streaming across the border are the best and brightest with pockets full of seed capital just looking for a place to start their future billion-dollar company. Legal and illegal immigrants are more likely to be like Pedro Quezada, a legal immigrant who lived in the US for 25 years before winning $338 million in the lottery. After those 25 years of living in the US, Mr. Quezada had an interpreter at his press conference.
Yes, some legal immigrants have founded some amazing companies and employ thousands of people, but they are the exception, not the rule. They also come legally.
I have empathy for people fleeing miserable countries to come to the US, but I will not allow my logic to be overridden by it. We are a compassionate nation with a big front door. If you choose to climb in a window you should be given the boot as quickly as possible. Since that’s not how our system currently works, rather than “catch and release,” people caught entering illegally should be detained until they can be sent home. And they should lose their children during that process.
If that doesn’t deter people from risking their lives and the lives of their children, so be it. If they choose, they can pay the thousands of dollars to do it all over again, complete with another one-way flight back home when they get caught. I know the media wants me to care, to feel emotions that override logic and condemn this “inhumane” treatment. But it’s not going to happen. Emotion should not set policy; the rule of law matters. I can’t be the only one who thinks so.