You Can't Have it Both Ways

Before I get into the nuts and bolts of this entry, there are some things that I must clarify so you, the reader, will become aware of what I am trying to say.  As I have watched the events unfold in Los Angeles over this past weekend (June 7 and 8) I have tried to make sense of what is happening.  I understand the President’s desire to rid the nation of undocumented citizens, but that doesn’t mean I agree with his methods.  I understand why the protests have taken place, but, again, that doesn’t mean I agree with the methods of the protestors.

I also know one of the requirements of any country is to have borders.  Those borders can be geophysical boundaries like mountains, rivers, oceans, or arbitrarily drawn lines in the sand.  Simply said, without borders, there is no country.  I also know there are few countries in the world that have immigrants in quantity as part of the national population like the United States.

I know that immigration reform is the charge of the Congress.  It is stated so in the Constitution (Art. 1, Sec 8). The most recent comprehensive immigration bill passed by Congress was the Immigration and Reform and Control Act of 1986 (also known as the Simpson-Mazzoli Act or the Reagan Amnesty). This bill, signed into law in November 1986, granted legalization to millions of unauthorized immigrants and also imposed sanctions on employers who hired unauthorized workers. While there have been numerous other bills and efforts to address immigration reform since then, none have achieved comprehensive legislation in the same way as the 1986 act.  (Please note, this act granted legalization to millions of unauthorized immigrants.) There have been other acts like the Laken Riley Act(S. 5) requires DHS to detain undocumented individuals arrested for specific crimes. The American Dream and Promise Act (H.R. 16) and other bills, including the DIGNIDAD Act, offer paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, particularly Dreamers and those with temporary protected status.

So, with this in mind, I have arrived at the conclusion “You Can’t Have it Both Ways!”
​
How is it that ICE can arrest and detain immigrants outside of immigration courts as those seeking to gain entrance to the United States in a legal manner?  Isn’t that what this federal administration wants…for immigrants to legally enter the United States?  How is that?

How is it the President can invoke the Insurrection Act and declare the protests in Los Angeles an “insurrection”, but having previously turned his back on the insurrection on January 6, 2021 at the nation's capitol?  If the President can send the National Guard to Los Angeles, then why did the President ask then Speaker of the House Pelosi, if she wanted the National Guard brought in to the Capitol?  How is that?

In the event one may not know the definition of “insurrection”, here is a dictionary description of “insurrection”:  insurrection | ˌinsəˈrekSHən | noun a violent uprising against an authority or government

In my view…there isn’t any difference between what is happening in Los Angeles and what happened in Washington DC, except for the behavior of the President.

And for those in Los Angeles protesting, I ask these questions:  Why did you come to this country?  (I can only speculate it was for a better life, a chance to improve your station in life, to get away from the corruption of your country of origin.)  Why, then, would you wave a flag of another nation (Mexican flag) if you want to stay in this country?  All that does is infuriate the members of the population who have had family members sacrifice their life for this country and freedom.  It’s okay to be Mexican-American, but one cannot be loyal to another country if you choose to immigrate to this country.  How is that?

President Theodore Roosevelt addressed this in a speech given during his administration in the early 1900s.

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...”
​
As I have said, “You Can’t Have it Both Ways”