Views on illegal immigration in the US – Part 1
Illegal Immigration in the US
To respond to the question on illegal immigration and on applying law to enforce legal migration, our discussion focuses on John Locke’s view of the government as notthe tyranny of the majority.
In the most simplistic view of this standpoint, the government ought to create laws that control resources and promote equitable access to the community. Inevitably these laws ought to affect all of us. They are laws for veryone and not only the chosen few. Locke suggests that when the law chases after selected individuals it becomes the “tyranny of the majority”. Yet many times we have run into the so-called laws voted into power by the “majority” at the demise of the minority. The current debates on illegal immigration fit this scenario.
We have two people in a transaction: one of them legal and the other the illegal in the minority. At the end of the day we penalize one of them instead of both and the justice scale tilts to the weaker side. Illegal immigrants offer illegal service to legal residents of this country who in turn invest and profit out of this illegal transaction. In the event the illegal immigrant pays a fine for giving the service:the legal resident continues to squander on illegally-acquired profits. By no means are we saying that illegal immigration should be permitted. Besides, allowing illegal immigration in a country would be to undermine the very laws of the land which the law seeks to protect. It would not make sense to break the law in order to allow illegal immigration and then expect the same law to respond to other crimes committed by the same people who afforded to skip the immigration law.
Law is law. Consistency and generalizability are key to efficiency to our legal system. The role of immigration laws that apply to some and not others is as the tyranny of the majority. If it is the case for Immigration laws to be selective, then there is no argument. Yet if the function of immigration law is to act liberally to those who come into the borders of the United States, or any country fo rhtat matter, then this law will indiscriminately chase after those who fail, illegal immigrant or non- illegal immigrant, to abide by it.
The discussion focuses on these two main categories of those illegally in the States: those who are employed and those who are not. How to chase those involved seems a major concern. Let’s consider the following example. When farm workers steal potatoes on the farm while working, would
