I make every effort to avoid any form of politics because I find lies and deceit extremely distasteful and completely unpalatable. However, I believe the political feeding frenzy on the topic of illegal aliens needs to be addressed.
The fact that we have elected officials and supposed citizens of our country condoning illegal immigration is not only offensive, but it also defies all logic. What is more, one can only assume that those who support the rioting that is taking place as a result of this lack of logic must have received a lobotomy. To be completely candid, I am incensed at the thought of illegal aliens and their twinkle toed supporters even having the gall to defy the laws of the United States.
Laws are created to establish and protect the norms of a society, and to protect its citizenry. Immigration laws serve to protect citizens with the primary focus being on controlling the movement of people across a country’s borders. All countries have immigration laws, but for some reason the leftists of western nations believe they should be overlooked not just in our country, but in all countries.
There are a variety of reasons for preventing illegal alien entry into a country, and here are the primary ones:
Security- Immigration laws help in preventing terrorists and criminals from crossing the border.
Economic reasons- Immigration laws serve to limit entry into the country; thus, the labor market can be controlled in order to ensure jobs for citizens. They also prevent an overload of the public services a country has established for its citizens. For example: health care, education, law enforcement, etc.
Social concerns- Immigration laws can also factor in inhibiting changes in language and culture, that otherwise could be influenced by illegal aliens.
Humanitarian issues- In some cases immigration laws provide for family reunification, as well as offer asylum for the persecuted.
Legally or illegally, for nearly 250 years people have come to America in search of something more. There is now a melting pot of peoples from all ethnic groups and walks of life inhabiting these lands from “sea to shining sea.” My own ancestry is predominately Irish and Scottish, with a dash of Jew thrown in for good measure. That being the case, at one time my ancestors were not Americans. My forefathers consciously made the decision to immigrate to the United States and become Americans. They learned the language of this great nation and practiced its beliefs, they assimilated, which is part and parcel of becoming a member of any society.
Inscribed on a pedestal at the Statue of Liberty monument is the poem, “The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus. I quote the final lines of this beautiful sonnet,
“…Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Since its inception, human beings from all over the world have sought out the United States of America in hope of a better life. People have been drawn here for a variety of reasons, but most held the common impetus for “…Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”
Illegal immigration has always been a problem for our country. There are two main contributing factors to why this is so: first, our vast borders are extremely difficult to secure, and second, our immigration laws are complex. Prior to 1965 the federal immigration laws were few and targeted specific ethnic groups, as well as being quota based. The enactment of “The Immigration and Nationality Act” (aka the Hart-Celler Act) in 1965, and the subsequent, “Immigration Reform and Control Act” in 1986, while meant to discourage and inhibit illegal immigration, actually spawned an ever increasing rise in the population of illegal aliens. Today, there are an estimated 11 million illegal aliens living within the confines of the United States. This makes our country #1 in the world for the largest illegal alien population.[i] (I encourage the reader to study history on this subject. The Bracero Program was also a major contributor to illegal alien activity.)
In order to understand this issue, I think it is prudent to provide a definition(s) for the centerpiece topic, that being illegal aliens.
- Illegal alien- a foreign person who lives in a country without having official permission to live there[ii]
- Illegal alien- a foreigner who has entered or resides in a country unlawfully or without the country’s authorization; a foreigner who enters the U.S. without an entry or immigrant visa, especially a person who crosses the border by avoiding inspection or who overstays the period of time allowed as a visitor, tourist, or businessperson.[iii]
And this one is straight from the U.S. government,
- Unauthorized immigrant- Unauthorized immigrants are noncitizens (aliens under the law) who generally have entered the United States without inspection, overstayed a period of lawful admission (overstays), or violated the terms of their admission. The population is also referred to by different adjectives by various observers, including undocumented, irregular, and illegal.[iv]
Any search to define the term, “illegal alien” will yield similar results, save some slight nuances in verbiage. Even with this variance, the words chosen in the definition will still denote as well as connote that the illegal alien is in a country “illegally” or “unlawfully.” As we see in the first definition from Merriam Webster, it being the softest or shall we say, politically correct version, defines that an illegal alien is “…in a country without having official permission,” which actually means, illegally.
Now that we know what an illegal alien is, we can proceed to address whether an illegal alien has a “right” to be in a country, specifically, the U.S. illegally. No matter how exhausting a search you perform, you will never find a logical argument that can justify the willful violation of our immigration laws. None. No one can claim that they have the “right” to be in this country or any other country illegally. To declare the contrary is to defy logic. So, the question remains, “Does an illegal alien have the “right” to be in the U.S. illegally?” The answer to that is an emphatic, “No!”
Remember, I am seeking to address the continued rioting in relation to illegal immigration. As we just learned, the terms “unauthorized” and “illegal” mean the same thing in reference to immigration, and definition #3 defines an “unauthorized or illegal alien as a “…non-citizen.” Now that that’s out of the way, I would like to address whether illegal aliens have a right to Constitutional support, specifically, protection under the First Amendment. To answer that, I present to you the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is the first Right listed in the Bill of Rights:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (Ratified December 15th, 1791)
The speech applied here, and throughout this venerated document is specifically written to protect the rights of the “people.” Who are the people? It is clear from the verbiage and the spirit of the document that “the “people” are the citizens of the United States.
Fast forward several decades and on July 9th, 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified. While there are five sections to the amendment, Section 1 specifically extends the liberties and rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people. The 14th Amendment went on to define the term, “citizens” as, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States…”
The 14th Amendment in its entirety: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
It is clear the authors’ intent was directed at those “…persons born or naturalized in the United States…” These are the people deemed citizens of the United States, and the 14th Amendment would supplant any State law that might conflict. The “person” that the States were not to deprive of “…life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…” was the citizen.
The 1st and 14th Amendments do not include illegal aliens, and were never intended to. It seems many of our legislators’ twist and distort the Bill of Rights, and any other law for that matter to cater to the wants of an extremely small minority. These same individuals who supposedly lead our country either do not have the mental capacity to understand or are just plain ole obstinate to the fact that the Amendments contained within the Bill of Rights were written for, wait for it… its citizens! Their nauseatingly obsequious pandering to these special interest groups which support illegal immigration know no bounds; they simply ignore the silent majority. To further confuse the matter at hand, the courts have been inconsistent in their decisions whether an illegal alien is or is not protected under the First Amendment. But this is only the case when a judge, who is supposed to be impartial by the way, is pushing his or her own agenda, much like the sycophantic actions of the legislators. It is truly a travesty. The verbiage in the Bill of Rights is clear to those performing a literal reading. All one must do is look through the eyes of our Founding Fathers and one can see that they had citizens of the United States in mind.
If we accept the fact that an illegal alien is here, I dare say, “illegally” then he has no access to the Bill of Rights provided to American citizens. The right to freedom of speech and the right to assembly are reserved for the citizenry of the United States, which should be axiomatic. If you are here illegally, how can you expect to have the very same rights as someone here legally? Again, it defies logic.
So, as I ponder these less than peaceful gatherings I am baffled at the participants’ logic, or I should say, lack thereof. It seems that those protesting, wait, that’s incorrect, those rioting are doing so because they believe it is wrong for our Commander in Chief to order the enforcement of our immigration laws. These laws include the removal of illegal aliens from our country and returning them to the countries to which they have allegiance. If you doubt their allegiance, just take note of how many foreign flags are being flouted at these assemblies/riots.
I cannot help but deduce that they really have not thought about how ignorant the argument is from the outset. If you are here illegally you have no right to be here, because you are here, well, illegally. Saying that an illegal alien has the right to be here (illegally) and protest when they are found out is just plain ole ignorant. It is like saying that you have the right to be in someone’s home when you are caught in the act of burglary, which is in fact a very accurate analogy. Burglary is the act of entering another person’s home “illegally” for the purpose of theft. An illegal alien is here in the U.S. citizens’ home, and if he is enjoying any benefit whatsoever of being in the U.S., he is committing the act of theft. What part of this is difficult to understand? I muse as the term moronic keeps coming to mind.
Furthermore, those that are legal citizens among the rioters’ ranks do have a right to a “peaceful assembly,” but there is no such right granted for a “violent” assembly, which of course is what is being performed across the nation. As we have already deduced, the complaining crowd really doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Their argument is moot. Those who espouse the position that illegal aliens have a right to be here, the key word being “illegal” mind you, are showing the rest of us that they have obviously been educated beyond their intelligence.
If those that are here illegally had any desire to become naturalized citizens, they would have already begun the process of doing so or, at the very least, would have obtained legal alien status. Instead, they have entered our country illegally, enjoyed the safety and security of our country illegally, and now they have taken to the streets brandishing flags from their foreign countries of origin, claiming they have the right to riot (illegally) in our streets. The level of ignorance being displayed is staggering. It is interesting to me that these kinds of events predominantly occur in the cities, the more heavily populated areas of our nation. Once again, my belief that the denser a population, the denser the population rings true.
I am in no way politically correct and have never been known to possess that attribute; I actually abhor the very term. If the reader has found any of my words to be derisive, then you are obviously part of the problem being addressed. But, even with my disdain for being PC, I do feel the following is necessary for the sake of clarification. I in no way entertain bigotry, and my contempt for racists is well known. Nothing I have presented here is to be, or can be misconstrued as being bigoted, or even supercilious. I don’t care if the illegal alien is white, black, brown, yellow, or a shade of mauve, if he is here illegally, he has broken the law.
I feel that I must add that as a younger man I worked side by side with illegal immigrants, primarily those who hailed from Mexico. I found nearly all I labored with to be honorable and trustworthy, and I have called many friends. The stories I heard of their travails were heart wrenching, and the suffering that they described is beyond the scope of what most Americans can even imagine. I have personally witnessed the horrors and ugliness in Third World countries that some must endure. I state these things, so the reader understands that I do empathize with the plight that many illegal aliens have had to endure in their native lands. But I do not, cannot, and will not condone their actions in entering this country illegally.
As I come to a close, I wanted to reiterate that there are an estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the Unites States, with 1.6 million in Texas alone.[v] That equates to one out of every 20 persons in Texas is an illegal alien. The expenses incurred as a result of illegal immigration is astounding. The health care system in Texas in a single month treated 31,012 illegal aliens at a cost to taxpayers of 121.8 million dollars in medical expenses.[vi] That is one month! What is more, under the Whitehouse’s previous administration, U.S. taxpayers forked over 16.2 billion dollars for Medicaid services which were provided to illegal aliens. What about the costs of other public systems such as education, state funded mental health services, law enforcement agencies, etc.? The list goes on and on.
We must also consider the real possibility that illegal aliens are manipulating our immigration system. Formerly, situations involving family reunification were relatively few in number. However, there has been a massive increase in unaccompanied illegal alien children crossing into the United States. Between 2020 and 2024 over 500,000 unaccompanied children were apprehended by U.S. immigration agents at the southern border.[vii] It is suspected that illegal alien parents are exploiting our immigration laws and provision for family reunification.
I submit to the reader an idea which may serve as a way to resolve this problem. I think that amnesty should be on the table and seriously considered for those already present in our country seeking to become citizens. The key phrase being, “seeking to become citizens.” Bear in mind that an amnesty program is nothing new, President Ronald Reagan did something similar in 1986.
The amnesty program I have in mind is not some willy nilly waiving of a magical wand, but a serious undertaking by our government and the illegal alien seeking naturalization. It will be a lot of work for those seeking naturalization, and there will be absolutely no free rides in what I have envisioned. Under such an amnesty program, those properly vetted by INS would be provided access to naturalization classes, instruction provided by qualified instructors, and the required Civics Test. Adults and children 12 years of age and older would be required to undergo the naturalization process. The opportunity for naturalization would be restricted to those who are already proving to be productive members of society, with exceptions made for children under 12, the elderly, and the infirm. Bear in mind that the income tax collected from the illegal alien population alone would be a boon to that rapidly depleting fund. Other collected taxes could help address some of the previously mentioned medical burden being footed by U.S. taxpayers. A side benefit of the naturalization process is that the dual language advertisements, addresses, and warnings we currently have could be reduced once again to solely an English language version, as learning English is required even under the current naturalization program.
Criminals, confirmed gang members, cartel affiliates, societal sponges, and parasitical mooches would be prohibited from being naturalized and would be sent back to their country of origin. Those who decline citizenship (they are myriad) should be expelled from our lands post haste, even faster than the criminals. If they don’t want to become one of us, then there will be no love lost when they are sent back home. There should also be severe repercussions should anyone deported be caught on American soil again.
While there are additional factors that must be considered, I believe the solution I suggested is something to seriously consider. Millions could become naturalized tax paying citizens, enabling them to pay their own way in this land of opportunity. This would cost far less than what we are currently doing.
The liberal media declares this to be a “complicated” or a “controversial” topic while it really isn’t. It is quite simply an issue of right or wrong. Entering the United States illegally is a violation of the law and everyone, including the illegal aliens know this. What has happened is we have allowed individuals, politicians, and special interest groups to give the impression that they can decriminalize laws as they see fit. What laws are next on their agenda? Murder?
One thing is certain; the American people cannot sustain the continued massive influx of illegal aliens; no country could. The financial burden is far too great for us to carry, and it is unfair to place that upon the taxpayers’ already heavy-laden shoulders. So, the question is, do we enforce our immigration laws, or do we simply sit back on our haunches and allow illegal aliens and their supporters to continue to break the law?
Curtis Klingle
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracero_Program
[ii] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/illegal%20alien
[iii] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/illegal-alien
[iv] https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47218
[v] https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/17/texas-undocumented-immigrants-trump-deportation-demographics/
[vi] https://www.fox4news.com/news/texas-hospitals-migrants-illegal-costs-nov-2024
[vii] https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/border-criminologies-blog/blog-post/2025/01/lives-risk-migrant-children-stranded-mexico-united#:~:text=Despite%20this%20situation%2C%20according%20to%20the%20official,2020%20to%20September%202024%20(FY2021%20to%20FY2024).
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