When people’s hearts start to bleed, their brains usually switch off and go into hibernation. This is what happened to freelance writer Jeremy Klaszus when he wrote his contribution for the Calgary Herald.
In it he writes:
In April, Arizona passed a law cracking down on undocumented migrants, making it a crime for them to be in the state at all — regardless of whether they’re involved in criminal activity.
With all due respect to his big heart and his empathy for the poor and persecuted, this statement is complete nonsense and utterly wrong. Anyone who enters a country illegally is by definition a law-breaker and criminal. There are no “law-abiding” illegals. The very fact that they are on American soil is a violation of the country’s laws. As such, Arizona hasn’t made being illegal a crime, but merely passed a law to enforce the existing, federal, law that makes such an act a crime. If the federal government had done more to secure the border and remove illegals, Arizona wouldn’t have felt the need to pass its own law.
If you break into my house, you’re still a criminal even if you clean my house and cook meals for me. I can choose to overlook your criminal act and keep you on as domestic help, but if and when you overstay your welcome, I am free to kick you out — and still have you prosecuted for the original crime you committed.
Most migrants today, be they immigrants or refugees, are queue-jumpers. They simply don’t want to put up with rules and laws or wait several years to have their applications processed. They want to jump right to the front of the line, because they only care about themselves and no one or nothing else. The same is true of the 500 Tamils who arrived in Canada recently. The UN has already stated clearly that Tamils are no longer worthy of special protection as refugees, which means that any Tamil wishing to come to Canada must file a proper immigration application and wait out the process. Showing up in a ship is not only queue-jumping, but a violation of Canadian laws. While not all instances of law-breaking are always punished, unfortunately, they certainly should never be rewarded.
Genuine refugees usually follow the golden rule of international law: you run like hell to the nearest safe country. You don’t go “shopping” for the country that suits you best. In fact, I’ll get right to the point: anyone arriving in a country from a country that is not in the immediate vicinity of the former is a queue-jumper and never a legitimate refugee. A legitimate refugee goes to the nearest safe country, as he or she is actually required to do under international law. Nor do you “cut off your ding-dong” and claim refugee status all of a sudden after having lived in Canada for four years. If you didn’t feel persecuted or discriminated against four years ago, you can’t make the claim now simply because you refuse to play by the rules that apply to all applicants. I don’t know which is a bigger liar and crook in this case: the transgendered “it” now claiming refugee status or the members of the refugee board who actually believe that an Irish citizen deserves special protection.
There would be a lot less strife in the world, and xenophobia (perceived or real), if people stopped breaking the laws and if governments started implementing and enforcing common-sensical and proper immigration laws.