Why does abiding by the law seem so unimportant?

By Dick Tunison

The young girl hung out of the school bus window holding a hand-drawn sign that read, “I am an immigrant, not a criminal.” She was one of the less boisterous teenagers who took part in demonstrations around the country this past week. While a few of the youngsters were interested in the political implications of the raging debates over the future of immigration in America, most of the others were more absorbed with skipping classes and getting away with it.

Wednesday evening I watched a TV report filmed along the Arizona-Mexican border. A Mexican boy and girl, who had been apprehended by the US Border Patrol, sat side-by-side on a log answering a reporter’s questions. “Where did you two come from?” the reported asked. “Ciudad Santa Ana,” the boy answered through an interpreter. “Do you know you’re breaking American law when you cross the border like this?” the reporter pressed. The boy just shrugged his shoulders and gave a knowing grin. “The Border Patrol will send you back home.” The boy nodded his understanding. “What will you do then?” the reporter asked. “I’ll cross over again as soon as I can,” came the unhesitating response.

There is an interesting dynamic in these two situations that seems to permeate a lot of the demonstrations going on in America these days. It’s the recognition that laws can be broken with impunity. Let’s start with the simple act of ditching school. When I was a kid the principal would have had the truant officer out after the violator. I never saw a truant officer, but I certainly had him well pictured in my mind’s eye – fearsome! He was a big-time deterrent to cutting school as I was growing up. Perhaps truant officers have gone the way of all flesh, because we don’t hear about them anymore, but it’s obvious the urge to be a truant is greater than ever.

It’s hard to justify cutting school these days as we see student performance levels sag below international norms. As taxpayers, we’re constantly being hit with demands for more money for schools, and as parents we feel the need to monitor our children’s performance like hawks. Under such circumstances, few of us would condone our kids’ running through the streets carrying placards promoting or refuting any cause, rather than fulfilling their scholarly duties. Yet this is exactly what is happening in some of our neediest communities. And to top it off, many school administrators are facilitating this malevolence.

The border runners who know they are breaking American laws when they steal across our borders have a far different agenda, but they still take law violation far too lightly. Even though their objective may be to flow quietly into the land of milk and honey to find much needed employment and a better way of life, they have no compunction about thumbing their noses at the laws of the land they wish to call home. It seems to me that’s a poor way to start a new life in a new country.

It’s estimated that there are about 11 million illegals in the United States right now. All of these people knew they would be violating the law even before they made the decision to come north. This knowledge made no difference as they made their choice between a legal and illegal entry process. Expediency was the overriding factor, even though there was a legal alternative available to them. Their eagerness was often heightened by the intolerable conditions in their home country they felt the need to leave behind.

To a large degree, this has been the motivation for countless immigrants who have chosen America as their home over the centuries. But as time went by, our people and our government have found it necessary to enact laws to control immigration at manageable levels. To be sure, some of the earlier restrictions had been racially motivated by the egregious attitudes of lawmakers and society in general, but most of the onerous laws have been corrected. Still, it takes time to immigrate legally, regardless of one’s country of origin. But the question remains, does all this justify lawlessness? I think we would agree the answer is an unequivocal, no.

Congress is struggling with a new formula designed to correct illegal entry problems. This past week the Senate agreed to a “step” program that would give incentives to illegal immigrants to conform to defined requirements in order to gain eventual citizenship. Of course this proposed legislation must pass muster with the House, which will likely add its own elements before passage can be achieved. Almost all members of congress are opposed to anything that smells of amnesty, particularly as it may apply to blatant violators of the law.

So what should be done with the people who are repeat offenders of the law? They should be denied citizenship. We have far too many scofflaws among us already, right down to school kids who think walking out of class to run through the streets is tantamount to exercising their civil rights. I’m not suggesting jail time for them, but a parental whupping might be worth trying.

It’s time to change attitudes about abiding by the law, and if we have common sense we’ll understand the change begins with each of us. That’s the kind of example we need to set for all immigrants. America is certainly a land of opportunity, but it’s also a land where citizens recognize the importance of respecting the law.