The 14th Amendment was written to define who are citizens and affirm that all citizens receive “equal protection under the law” and benefits from the government. It was written just after the civil war when it was still not clear if black people were citizens and if the government would treat them differently from white people.
Now there is confusion about who gets government services because there are just so many in the US who are not citizens. Those here without papers, undocumented, or “illegal” either are or are not entitled to “equal protection under the law” and that is the problem.
Obviously an “illegal” would be someone who has broken a law. But many people who do not have papers may not have broken any laws, and according to the Constitution no one must incriminate oneself by showing or explaining what they may or may not have done which breaks a law.
So undocumented people, and there are as many as 20 millions, (equivalent to the entire population of five or six of our smaller states) are certainly not entitled to any benefits from the government, no one asserts they are, but some of us believe they are entitled to equal protection under the law. That is a big question.
For example, if an undocumented resident is robbed or wins the lottery or buys property can the government just say you are on your own? And if the government does not help enforce contracts with undocumented residents, and the undocumented community enforces such contractson their own through different means, such as a parallel legal system, a neighborhood watch or social activism, is that legal?
In any case these people are not leaving voluntarily. It is a problem the Federal Government will deal with one day. Many undocumented residents have been here for decades, their children are citizens or at least have graduated our schools and feel as American as you and I.
This problem will not go away. We cannot just shoot them or march them to Mexico. And Congress is useless. I suggest we fine them, make them pay like $20k to stay, but I am not in Congress so no one listens to me.
Copyright 2012 Kent Johnson
