A whole bunch of my friends are sharing posts and stirring up the pot again about immigration policy, and even they probably dont know why its happening. But theyre seeing stuff on their feed so theyre sharing it. Just so everyone knows, the reason why this is happening is that the Democrats in the House have filed a discharge petition calling for a vote on HR 15, a comprehensive immigration reform bill modeled after a bipartisan Senate Bill that includes an earned pathway to citizenship. Now, the discharge petition will not work. There will be no vote on this in the House. And all of the original posts that are being shared are designed to put backbone into the Republicans who might otherwise allow a vote to happen. But I thought Id very quickly address something that keep popping up in all of these shared posts, and that is the fact that illegal immigrants are criminals. It might surprise you to know that the term illegal immigrant is technically not valid as a legal concept, because by definition in US law, an immigrant is a person who was lawfully admitted for permanent residence. What you really want to call them thats a bit closer are illegal aliens. But it turns out that that doesnt make them criminals. Hang with me here. This is really quite simple. People bandy about the word criminal quite a bit without knowing the legal definition. In fact, referring to undocumented immigrants as criminals is legally inaccurate, because being in the US without proper documents is a civil offense, not a criminal one. Thats why when caught, theyre deported rather than being charged with a crime, given a trial, found guilty, and incarcerated. So no, undocumented aliens are not criminals, and in fact theyre not even illegal immigrants. But I recognize that their actual legal status doesnt really affect what some people will choose to call them. But just so you know, if you choose to call them that, youre wrong -- at least according to US Law. And thats not my opinion.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 02:04:50 +0000
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