A 23-year-old Seattle man has become an unwitting symbol of the debate over immigration in the United States. And while the plight of Daniel Ramirez Medina is likely to generate impassioned arguments on both sides of the issue, the crux of the discussion should focus upon the fact that we have laws in this country and that we must work to enforce them.
Ramirez Medina was illegally brought to the United States from Mexico by his family at the age of 7. That places him among a demographic dubbed the “dreamers” — people who arrived as children and have grown up here. Ramirez Medina and thousands like him have been protected under an Obama policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, allowing them to stay without fear of deportation.
Reportedly, Ramirez Medina has a job, a son, and no criminal record. Yet he was arrested Friday during a raid at his father’s home. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson claimed that Ramirez Medina said he is a gang member, an assertion disputed by his lawyers. In a court filing arguing that their client’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated, the lawyers wrote, “The agents who arrested and questioned Mr. Ramirez were aware that he was a DACA recipient, yet they informed him that he would be arrested, detained, and deported anyway, because he was not ‘born in this country.’ ” They added that Ramirez Medina has a work permit under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and his status was reviewed and approved last year.
Clearly, there is some desire in this country for a crackdown on illegal immigration. Donald Trump made it a centerpiece of his campaign and was victorious in the presidential election. But it also is clear that a thoughtful approach is required.
Department of Homeland Security officials said Monday that a series of raids had resulted in the arrest of 680 immigrants living illegally in the United States. FoxNews.com reported that number was “far below the totals of similar raids conducted under the Obama administration.” Fox also reported that raids during the Obama years generally resulted in the arrest of “wanted immigrant fugitives and convicted criminals. Last week’s arrests included immigrants whose only offense was an immigration violation.”
That dichotomy means that it is time for a serious discussion about immigration, a discussion that Congress has mostly ignored despite sharp rhetoric on both sides of the issue.
While those who prefer a no-tolerance policy regarding illegal immigrants rightly point out that people who are here illegally already have broken the law, it should be unconscionable to send an employed father who has no criminal record to a country he has not known since he was 7. For those who prefer amnesty for immigrants who have arrived illegally, there must be an acknowledgement that such people are, indeed, criminals.
If the United States is going to have immigration laws — as it should — those laws must be enforced. They should be enforced with compassion and within the parameters of the U.S. Constitution, but they must be enforced. It often is said that the United States is a nation of laws, but that assertion is diminished when some laws are ignored depending upon the direction of the political winds at the moment.
For too long, this nation has bought into the notion that laws should be enforced — unless they are immigration laws. If the mood of the country is to not enforce existing laws, then change the laws to reflect that. But we shouldn’t simply look the other way when it suits us.
