The God-Given Right to Be Here

Do you suggest undocumented immigrants just don't have the same rights as Americans?  They don't belong here, and the don't have the right to be here.

You can't have the rights of a citizen if you are not even a citizen.

Well, are you right? 

Consider what the Declaration of Independence has to say on the matter. From that venerable old document, we learn there are some rights that are God's to give, but not for government to interfere with. These, says the great, old document, include the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

When he steps across that border into the United States, the immigrant is seeking nothing more than life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You might not like him being here, but does he have the right to be here? -- make that the "unalienable" right to be here, "unalienable" meaning government or no one else take it from him.

Nope, neither you, nor former President Trump, nor Florida Gov. DeSantis, nor Texas Gov. Abbott. Hands off, those rights were given by a higher source.

The rights referred to in the Declaration are not bestowed by government, but endowed by the Creator. The document says as much. Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, then? The immigrant flees for his life, he seeks the liberty of America's shores, and he seeks the happiness of laboring in America and joining his family here. Would you deprive him of those rights?

Rather than depriving these rights, it is the duty of government to secure them. "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men," says the document. Does government, then, have the right to snatch away these rights? To the contrary, governments are created to preserve those rights, to ensure them to everyone.

And, not just "citizens." The Declaration doesn't say you have to be a citizen. Remember, there is that part that says, "all men are created equal." How did were arrive at the conclusion immigrants should be left out? 

Now, if it is government's obligation and duty to assure these rights, how are we going to get around that? Can we swing wide around it? Can we close our eyes to the Declaration? Words are words and they mean something. And what the Declaration says, it says. God bestowed these rights. They are unalienable. They are God's to give, man's to have, and not the government's to take away.

So, next time an immigrant shows up at the border, all he's got to do is read his rights as they are spelled out in the Declaration of Independence, right?

And they are going to have to let him in, right?

I wish it were that easy, but I know it isn't. I also know your thoughts on the matter might be entirely different than mine. You have the right to an opinion, as well. I will just say I look at what is written in the Declaration, and it seems clear. 

There is a part of the document that says, "Let facts be submitted to a candid world." The Declaration has submitted the facts. My thought is that we should be candid enough to admit the immigrant has the right to be here. I don't think I've missed anything, but you are free to a different opinion.