Standing at the border, on the Mexico side, The Immigrant scanned the audience of journalists at his press conference. Then, he looked passed them, into the reaches of America.
"Yes, I should be free to enter the land in front of me," he said. "What is freedom if you can walk up to the border of it, but not be free to walk in?"
His gaze continued to be fixed on the landscape of the new country before him, as if staring into a dream. "I didn't come with this in mind," he said. "But, I think I should like to walk right across this line in the sand. I think I should like to take a walk right into America."
"You do, and you'll be walking into not just America," cried one journalist, "you'll be walking right into jail."
"Not much freedom there," The Immigrant responded. "Let's just test and see how much freedom there is in America." With that, he stepped away from the podium, and walked right across the border, right into America.
And, of course as he did, a border agent greeted him. Whether the agent read him his Miranda rights or not, I do not know, but I know the agent suggested he just turn around and walk right back where he came from. The Immigrant said he wasn't going to do that, and the federal agent hauled him off to jail.
"Shackles and chains are not the greeting of freedom," he protested, as the agent hauled him away. "A jail cell is not the way liberty welcomes people. If I come to America, is not it a fair expectation that I will find liberty? Why should I, instead, be tossed in jail? I should be freer on that side of the border than I am on the other, but I am not."
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