Illegal Deportations of Illegal Aliens?

I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television, but I’ve always believed that if something is illegal, then taking action against it shouldn’t be illegal either.

That’s just common sense, the kind of thing that gets passed down with your granddaddy’s pocketknife and your momma’s recipe for peach cobbler. But according to the news media–the same folks who think rain is breaking news–we’re apparently in a bind over President Trump deporting illegal aliens.

The big scandal, they say, is that it’s illegal to deport folks who are in the country illegally. Now, that’s a level of logic that gave me pause. I had to sit down on the porch, sip my coffee, and scratch my head about it for a while.

I mean, isn’t the term “illegal alien” just a polite way of saying someone’s where they ain’t supposed to be?

It’s like a stray cow getting into your neighbor’s garden. You don’t shoot the cow, of course, but you do walk it back to where it came from–and if it keeps coming back, well, you patch the fence and maybe talk to the fella who owns the cow.

But let’s go back a step. I was watching one of those early morning news panels—the kind with four people who all agree with each other—and they were just aghast. You’d think the President had personally rounded up orphans and puppies.

“This is outrageous,” one of them said. “He’s violating their rights.”

“Whose rights?” I hollered at the TV, scaring the dogs.

Now, I get it. We’re a nation of immigrants. I come from a long line of folk who came from elsewhere in the world. Hell, I am French-born.

And, I’ve got no issue with folks who come here legally, work hard, pay taxes, and do their part. That’s the American dream.

But if someone’s in the country illegally, and the law says they’ve got to go, then the President—whether he’s named Trump, Taylor Swift, or Yosemite Sam—ought to be able to say, “Pack it up, partner.” That’s not cruelty. That’s called enforcing the law.

Imagine if I robbed a bank, and then the sheriff showed up and arrested me. Would the news folks say, “Well, sure, Tom broke the law, but arresting him like that—now that’s the real crime”?

Of course not. Everyone would say, “That fool should’ve known better.”

But we live in strange times. Up is down, right is wrong, and calling a spade a spade will get you canceled faster than a fruitcake in July.

There’s a part of me that thinks some of these media types want to make a fuss no matter what’s going on. If President Trump said breathing oxygen was good for you, they’d recommend wearing plastic bags over your head.

Anyway, I’m not here to argue politics. But I do know that if we’re going to have laws, they ought to mean something. And if someone’s in the country illegally, and the President decides to send them home, that shouldn’t be headline news–it ought to be page three, between the gardening tips and the obituaries.

At the very least, can we all agree that something can’t be illegal and wrong not to do? That’s double-negative nonsense.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a fence to fix–the neighbor’s goat is learning bad habits.