Ourview
Immigrants
deserve rights
The Supreme Court has ruled that immigrants,
legal or otherwise, can be held without
a hearing and deported, even if they are
not dangerous and are unlikely to flee.
In a 5-4 decision, the court upheld a 1996
immigration law that seeks to rid the nation
of “criminal aliens.” The law requires mandatory
detention and deportation of all immigrants,
even those who are longtime lawful residents,
if they have committed a crime that is punishable
by at least a year in prison, the Los Angeles
Times reported.
“This court has firmly and repeatedly endorsed
the proposition that Congress may make rules
as to aliens that would be unacceptable
if applied to citizens,” Chief Justice William
Rehnquist said.
This statement has appeared on every article
related to the Supreme Court’s decision.
Why should one person have the right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
when another should be denied these basic
rights?
One
could argue that we pay taxes and contribute
to American society so we should be granted
more rights. But legal aliens pay taxes
and all residents, legal or illegal, contribute
to our society. We cannot make the case
for basic human rights when we exclude certain
human groups, such as people born outside
the borders of the United States.
A Korean immigrant and legal resident of
the United States since the 1980s, Hyung
Joon Kim, is an example of how the system
and this law fails to fairly impose justice.
The former San Jose resident convicted of
burglary for breaking into a tool shed,
and later of petty theft, was immediately
detained without bail to await deportation
after completing his state sentence in 1999.
Kim’s case went to the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, which ruled that his case
should have received a bail hearing because
his crimes were “rather ordinary.”
Justice David Souter wrote that the government
“can’t simply avoid the due process clause
by selecting a class of people for confinement
on a categorical basis and denying members
of that class any chance to dispute the
necessity of putting them away.”
It is not a great comfort to know that only
a few of our justices value basic human
rights. Kim was lucky. The 75,000 criminal
immigrants who have been detained will most
likely not be as lucky.
Under the 1996 law, which the Supreme Court
upheld, Congress deemed any “aggravated
felony” or recent crime of “moral turpitude”
makes an immigrant subject to deportation.
The L.A. Times reported that, in practice,
lesser offenses such a shoplifting and possession
of stolen property have been deemed to be
aggravated felonies because they resulted
in a jail term of one year or more.
The United States is host to an estimated
11 million permanent resident immigrants,
or “green card” holders. The Supreme Court
is failing in its duty to protect equality
and fairness and justice with its recent
decision. How can it make a case to for
equality for anyone when it rules that those
11 million people have less of a right to
justice than another person?
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