Protecting All "Persons" Means Immigrants, Too
The country is in the middle of another bitter and divisive debate over immigration. As too often in the past, immigrants are demonized, victimized by racial and ethnic profiling, and blamed for economic and social ills.
Almost every group of new Americans has faced discrimination, hostility and stereotyping. Between the 1880’s and 1960’s, immigration laws targeted Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Catholics, Italians, Mexicans, Eastern Europeans and any non-English speaking non-northern Europeans for discrimination.
Today, aggressive ICE tactics, massive immigration raids in Postville, Iowa and Laurel, Mississippi, and local sheriffs seeking to supplant federal authorities, grab headlines, punish workers and devastate families. Too easily forgotten are the central principles of the Constitution, the civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the fundamental protections afforded all “persons,” not just citizens. For example, the Constitution dictates that every person in the United States is entitled to due process and equal protection; to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures; to criminal proceedings with a presumption of innocence, the right to counsel, a jury trial and freedom from double jeopardy; to protection against cruel and unusual punishment; and to freedom of speech, religion and association.
Immigration raids that seize people indiscriminately, lock down workplaces, arrest without individualized suspicion or rely on racial stereotypes violate the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Local police that discriminate against Latinos in the name of immigration enforcement violate the 14th Amendment. Deportation hearings that deny due process and detention policies that impose unjustified jailing violate the Fifth Amendment. Prohibiting access to the courts and judicial review for immigrants facing deportation violate the fundamental checks and balances and guarantee of habeas corpus that protect all of us from government abuse. The ACLU is challenging these and other policies every day. We won a landmark Supreme Court victory in INS v. St. Cyr to protect access to the courts for immigrants and to prohibit retroactive deportation.
Whether at the federal, state or local level, we must oppose laws, ordinances and policies that subvert fairness and consistency, that cause or encourage discrimination against people who look or sound “foreign,” and that violate the fundamental values of the Constitution.
Enforcing individual rights and freedoms is the mission of the ACLU. We fight in the courts for every person, regardless of immigration status or citizenship, to be treated with the fairness and dignity that our Constitution guarantees. When you vote, choose those who will do the same.
Sep 18th, 2008 at 5:22am
I don't think that's what the founding fathers had in mind when making this law. I'm sure if illegal immigration was a big issue then as it is today, they would have worded it a little better, but I really do think by "all persons" they meant all citizens. Why should someone who is not a citizen get the same rights that the rest of us do? If you think we should, then why don't we just open the borders and let anyone in. If illegal immigrants (and the main word here is illegal) get special treatment, then why should any of us be citizens? Let's all just get rid of our citizenship and milk the government for everything they have, for free. I just don't get you people.
Sep 19th, 2008 at 3:02pm
http://www.welfarestate.com/911 . CAN WE AS 911 HIJACKERS SUE THE UNITED STATE GOVERNMENT .PLEASE FEEL FREE TO REPLY TO US AT . CYBERWAR44@AMEINFO.COM .
Sep 20th, 2008 at 6:09am
I live in Danbury, CT. The population of illegal aliens in Danbury is estimated to be 27,000. The estimated combined population, legal and illegal, is 90,000. The city, hospital and charitable organizations serving the poor and the homeless incur significant costs due to the illegal aliens.
This issue will not be resolved by building a taller fence on our borders. As long as employers are willing to employ illegal aliens to significantly reduce their labor costs, illegal aliens will continue to enter the country. Catching and deporting them is costly and ineffective.
The employers of illegal aliens are profiting illegally. Many of these business owners claim that they are only being compassionate. All of them will argue that they thought the illegal alien was a legal resident. These business are acting out of greed rather than compassion. If they really cared about the welfare of these people they would pay them adequately. The consumer retail business community opposes measures to reduce the illegal population because of the volume of business that they represent. Thousands of apartments would be vacant except for the illegal aliens. The businesses that rely on or exist only because of the business they do with illegal aliens complain that their rights will be violated if the illegal alien population is reduced and they demand that laws for reducing the illegal population not be enacted and enforced. They appeal to legal population to be compassionate for them and the illegal aliens. That's like saying that bank robbers have a right to make a living by continuing to rob banks.
I think the states and local communities have a right to enact and enforce laws for ensuring that businesses employ only legal residents. Requiring job applicants to prove that they are legal residents is no different than requiring firearm purchasers to prove that they meet all the purchasing and ownernership requirements.
While the ACLU and other organizations fight for the illegal aliens the business owners that hire them and sell to them are laughing all the way to the bank.
I support the ACLU's efforts to ensure that all residents are treated properly but I do not support obstructionist activities. What does the ACLU propose that states and local communities do to relieve the impact of the illegal alien population?
Sep 20th, 2008 at 8:42am
The attempt to frame the conversation such that "illegal immigrant = immigrant" is invalid. Just as the attempt to rename illegal immigrants as undocumented workers is invalid. Most of us are not fooled by this form of word magic.
Sep 26th, 2008 at 12:09am
I found this article both intentionally misleading and unguided to point of offensive. The constitution is cited several times and the author’s interpretation of its content is dumbfounding. The author has seeming forgotten that the constitution also granted congress the power to make laws and the executive branch the power to enforce those laws. Although the constitution uses the words all persons it also uses the term citizen. I, as I believe most Americans do, believe the authors of our guiding document intended these two terms to mean the same thing. Maybe the wants to argue the intentions of Webster’s dictionary also as the term civil is defined in its primary meaning as “of citizens.” Maybe the author needs to remember he is representing the American CIVIL Liberties Union.
Sep 26th, 2008 at 10:13am
I have been living in this country for thirteen years and I have never been in trouble and I am an illegal alien.
I've worked at a very prestigious company that caters to the need of many people. I was hired because i was the only person w/ a degree for the position they needed filled.
I have to say I am grateful to my employer for seeing me for someone who is qualified to work for him, and not as an immigrant he can take advantage of.
Ive known that he is making money off me but Ive appreciated having my job. I think im getting paid what I deserve and even more.
However I do agree with you Andrew when you say that picking up and deporting illegal aliens is costly. My husband is in Immigration custody now and has been for the past three weeks. For every day that he's there he has to be fed so whose paying for that? Not me. Its a waste of taxpayers money but if the government thinks they are doing the right thing then who are we to say any different.
I say, give more time for people to leave voluntarily. No amount of pictures taken will stop these people from coming back. We all look alike somehow and some of us, well we just blend in. As for me I have two weeks left in this country and I have loved it and hated it at the same time.
In the end its not a place for me to be.
Oct 4th, 2008 at 2:03pm
You people are ignorant, from removing prayer in public schools to your immigration stance. Instead of making a big deal on things you shouldn’t be changing, work on getting a real job, pay your taxes, and oh yeah, try to make your house payment. Why don’t you report on things such as equal rights for tax paying citizens and not the lower class 5th generation welfare leaches?
Here is a great plan and if you like it let me know. First we need to create jobs in America so we dig a ditch a mile wide on the border and take the fill to New Orleans. Relocate all of the alligators in Florida to the new earth friendly border sanctuary. That’s an economic stimulus package we can all live with….PS if you want to enter the US then abide by the law or don’t come in. If you get caught we shouldn’t have to house you, feed you, and deport you, we should put you to work for the government for nothing…b/c that’s what you are contributing, nothing.
Oct 14th, 2008 at 2:26pm
I agree with bzegial. Give it time and citizens and immigrants alike will be packing up; this is no place for most of us right now. This isn't America.
Oct 21st, 2008 at 10:14pm
"America" (The USA) is made up of immigrants. When all those Italian, Irish, German, and British immigrants came to the US they were also "illegal." I know you are all very proud of your heritage...well, the people that are coming to the US now are coming for the same reason your ancestors did. You need them, and they need you. Ig you have a problem with the "illegal" part, then use your democratic power to persuade the government to make it easier for immigrants to come here legally.
I am not an immigrant, I'm an international student that's studying here so that I can go back to my country and help out back there with the education I received here. However, sometimes it is SO hard for students to get a visa..I think it's ridiculous that there is so much red tape for those of us that want to be here legally. That is why I want to leave. The whole system makes me feel like I'm not wanted here, even though I'm here legally, because I have to stick to stupid rules (like only working on campus, for 20 hours a week or I can get deported).
I'm from Spain. If you want to learn from history (and I think Spain has to learn also because they are also being unfair to immigrants),remember what happened when Spain kicked out all the muslims and jews; the "golden age" was really a "dark age" of hunger and poverty.
You need them, and they need you.
Oct 24th, 2008 at 8:30pm
My rights have been discriminated in the workplace, my civil rights have been violated by the EEOC, you guys seem to have no time for me. The United States needs to look at the Americans that made this country. Illegal immigrants have more rights than I do, more free resources. To get my rights protected has so far cost me over $20,000.00. That's crazy!!!
I bet your schooling is 100% payed by the U.S. where my 17yr. old has to take out loans. I am on long term disabillity from my company. I pay $280.00 a month to keep my insurance and I pay $300.00 a month in co-pays. I bet you get free insurance. Illegal immigrants always get free lawyers to protect they're rights. What about me??
I have written the ACLU many many letters and don't even get a response. WHY??
lorivorwald@hotmail.com
Oct 30th, 2008 at 7:42am
I agree with lorivorwald. Where are the tax payers rights? I haven't been to the Dr. in 3 years because my husband's job went to China and we couldn't afford the Cobra insurance. Yet when my grandson went to the emergency room, it was full of illegals and translators. Mostly pregnant illegals at that. My taxes pay for that but they won't cover me getting the same care.
Oct 30th, 2008 at 7:45pm
Take me off your mailing list. I joined a few weeks ago but have now seen that you are a bunch of idiots. You promote queers, flooding us with mexicans which lowers our wages, disagreed with the ruling that we have a right to bear arms.
Then you do nothing about things like property being stolen from us because we didn't pay a fuedal lord serfdom tribute. You guys are a big joke.
Nov 2nd, 2008 at 10:10am
there is mad crazy people outthere dudes find god for real,you people do not own the land stop blaming the ones that have nothing,i got to go i think i have to go puke but please find GOD you poor soul
Nov 3rd, 2008 at 2:39am
It's unfortunate that the subject of the original post is completely avoided by a number of the comments. While I sympathize with those who have stories of hardship because of lost jobs, the inaccessibility of medical care, and any number of other problems related to bad government policy, I have no patience for the mindset that views immigrants as the all-purpose lighting rod for our civic angst. The result of such scapegoating is only sloppy thinking.
If you want to see the government do a better job of handling our economy, then look to the trade, monetary and development policies that shape it. Incidentally, they happen to also be some of the principal motives behind conditions in other countries that push the most energetic and entrepreneurial members of their populations into America's arms. We do not have 12 million immigrants in this country without civil status by some great misapplication of law. The situation that prevails suits some of the most powerful actors in our political system very well. Those of us whom it see it as madness, on both the right and the left, are ignored because the allure of ideals has little political utility compared to the wealth created by the status quo (and the campaign contributions it generates).
The thought to take away from the meaning of "persons" under the law is that the founders who conceived of our political union understood very well the meaning of the word citizen and use it carefully throughout the Constitution. They also understood that the term person was undoubtedly a much broader concept rooted not in legalistic qualifications, but in our common humanity.
The idea that the term citizen is interchangeable with the word person is ridiculous. The concept of our social contract depends not upon blind adherence to the form of our prevailing legalisms, but upon the bedrock principle that all men are created equal and endowed with qualities and rights that legitimate government cannot trample. These liberties are inviolate not because any government has declared them legal, but because the government that imposes upon them ceases to be a government for the people and by the people.
When we confuse the word "legal" with the concept of liberty we demean our forefathers and endanger our own freedom.
Nov 18th, 2008 at 8:18pm
Illegal aliens have no rights, so you have nothing to do with representing them. You are helping protect the criminals and not the average citizen. Your board and agenda both need an overhauling. If not, close up and let some other organization that Really has the legal citizen's rights in mind to protect. In this country, we are concerned with getting and maintaining jobs and health care for Our Citizens. Since most of these illegals consider their country's so great that they flaunt their flag without showing ours at every opportunity, then let them go back to their Great country's and ask them to help them out. We aren't the world's keepers. And by the way, the misinformed woman about all the Europeans being illegal. Lady, get a life and some common knowledge before you speak that kind of nonsense.
Nov 10th, 2009 at 8:09pm
Illegals are just what they are, ILLEGALS... They should be arrested and DEPORTED immediately. They have no rights. We as Americans are sick of these people thinking they have rights. They are criminals, and just like all criminals, there is a place for them... JAIL THEN DEPORTATION... They make me sick to my stomach thinking they have any rights in our country. This is America... Quit treating our citizens as second class next to these damn illegals. GET RID OF THEM ALL!!!! If you support these ILLEGALS being here, you should really take a look at why you are an American Citizen...
Post new comment