The arrest and immediate deportation of Elvira Arellano yesterday (Immigration activist deported to Mexico (AP)) was at least a year overdue.  She should have been deported as soon as she satisfied whatever sentence she received when found guilty of using an invalid Social Security card.  Releasing her with the expectation that she would surrender for deportation demonstrated incredible naiveté and stupidity on the part of the responsible court.  Or was it the duplicity of a court overriding the law of the land?

Claims that Ms. Arellano should not be deported because the government’s deportation order would separate her from her son are transparent lies and irrelevant.

First, unless Mexico would refuse her son entry, the only one separating Ms. Arellano from her son is Ms. Arellano herself.  The United States government is certainly not preventing Ms. Arellano’s son from accompanying her to Mexico.  She caused the current separation when she chose to be in this country illegally when she bore the child and did not take him with her when she was deported.

Second, her claim or the claim of her supporters that separation from her son will cause undue hardship is completely irrelevant.  Again, it is Ms. Arellano’s actions causing any hardship.  The actions of most miscreants cause hardship for their families.  If we are to allow Ms. Arellano to remain in this country based on this supposed hardship, we must be fair and release almost all inmates of our federal, state, and local prisons.  Unless an inmate is an orphan with no living relatives and no dependants, they could claim that their incarceration is causing hardship for their loved ones and they should be released.

But over and above the long delayed arrest and deportation of Ms. Arellano, I want to know why Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago, and others working with him have not been arrested and charged under Title 8 United States Code § 1324 which reads, in part:

(a)(1)(A) Any person who--

(iii) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation;

(v)(I) engages in any conspiracy to commit any of the preceding acts, or

(II) aids or abets the commission of any of the preceding acts,

shall be punished as provided in subparagraph (B).

(B) A person who violates subparagraph (A) shall, for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs--

(i) in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(i) or (v)(I) or in the case of a violation of subparagraph (A)(ii), (iii), or

(iv) in which the offense was done for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain, be fined under title 18, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both;

Now, I’m not an attorney but I am able to read English (even this convoluted sort) and it seems to me that Coleman and his cohorts have violated 8 USCA § 1432 (a)(1)(A)(iii) and 8 USCA § 1324 (a)(1)(A)(v) and should therefore be guests of the federal government for a maximum of 10 years.

As always, the views expressed here are those of one humanist….