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January 07, 2004

When the Slogan Doesn't Help

TalkLeft points to a sad story about an illegal immigrant who reported a murder and was deported. This intuitively seems wrong, and yet it's hard to consider this a remotely black and white case.

The man broke the law to get into the United States. While that's not remotely as bad as murder, it is a crime, and it is the job of the nation's law enforcement officials to enforce the laws. This is the case regardless of their personal feelings about the law. If the police can decide when and against whom they'll enforce the law, we're no longer living in a society of law, but a tyranny.

Conversely, any illegal who hears about this story is almost certainly not going to report any crimes he sees to the police now. This doesn't seem to be in anyone's best interests, except perhaps the criminal's.

Opponents of illegal immigration (which raises the interesting question of who the hell is for illegal immigration, but that's neither here nor there) argue that laws that protect illegals from prosecution just encourage more illegal immigration. I suppose that may be true, but it seems unlikely. Who's going to decide that it's ok to come to the U.S. illegally now, because once they get here they'll just witness a crime and gain sanctuary. Besides, the laws can be written so that illegals aren't revealed to the authorities if they come forward to report a crime without granting them amnesty, so if they are later caught by immigration authorities, they'll still be deported. The sanctuary will just prevent them from being deported simply for reporting a crime.

Laws are generally intended to encourage certain types of behavior. It seems only logical to pass a law that will encourage people to report crimes to police, as this offers a clear benefit to society. As for the flood of illegals that may arrive due to this, I'll take my chances on a bunch of illegals who come here intending to report any criminal activity they see.