Do it right or not at all

Former ICE Director Thomas Honan recently laid it all out there for Alexandria Ocasio-cortez with one simple statement: Any American citizen would be separated from our children if we broke the law and were arrested.

Why is that so difficult to understand?

All the bleeding hearts hollering about how horrible it is for children of illegal immigrants to be separated from their parents, they forget one fact: Families who are coming to the U.S. the correct way through legal ports of entry?

Yeah ... THOSE folks are NOT being separated except in rare cases where it is discovered the adult family member is a criminal.

So I would like to pose a question to the masses. Why do you think it is OK for immigrants to come here illegally? Is it because you think the legal process through the ports of entry is too difficult or takes too long?

I want you to consider this ...

Suppose I was a single mother living in Cabrini-green. In case you aren’t familiar, that is the worst set of row houses you will ever find in the worst possible part of Chicago you could ever live in ... daily shootings, crime, poverty, it is horrible ...

Suppose I am really poor and have no vehicle and so the only way I can have a job is to walk a few blocks to a local gas station and get a job there.

It’s barely enough to make ends meet and support my children so we just scrape by.

Suppose my kids have to walk every day through ganginfested areas to get to school.

Suppose sometimes the only meal they get is at school because I don’t have enough for groceries. Sounds awful doesn’t it? Now, suppose I decide I am tired of living this way so I fill out all the necessary paperwork to move my family into a gated community 50 miles away where I can find a better job.

However there is a waiting list. They tell me it can take up to six months or maybe even a year because they have to get apartments ready and they have to run my credit check and they have to make sure I’m not a felon and they have to check all my rental references. (Currently in our country, this is what happens when you move into an apartment community so an extent we ALL go through a vetting or screening process.)

But I get tired of waiting. So me and my kids scale the wall to the gated community and sneak in one of the empty apartments. I find a better job in the area and I enroll my kids in the better school using our new address ... but I am illegally trespassing, correct?

Then one day the apartment manager finds out that I’m illegally trespassing and they have me arrested. I have no family in the area so now me and my kids are separated, I’m sitting in jail and they have been placed in DHS custody.

All of this because I wanted a “better life for my kids” and I lived in a horrible area and I wasn’t willing to wait and do it the legal way. Sound familiar yet?

Do you think everyone hollering about illegal immigration and how we should let everyone in no matter what, would have any sympathy for me, a U.S. citizen who did essentially the same thing?

I would have to go through the court system to get my kids back if I was lucky enough to be able to bond out of prison. And do you think for ONE SECOND I’d get to go back to the apartment that I was illegally living in?

Heck no! I’d be put out on the streets. No detention facility for me to live with my kids while I waited on the apartment paperwork to go through. Nope. Out on the street is exactly where I’d be.

Folks, this is no different than what illegal immigrants are doing. They are living in “bad” conditions and they want a better life BUT ... they come here illegally. They get caught and they have to suffer the consequences and they don’t like it. They are separated from their children the same way I would be separated if I committed a crime. Why can no one see this?

We are all dealt different hands in life and yes I hate it that there are families living in horrible conditions that want to come here but at the end of the day, they have to do it legally. Just because their life is currently hard or they don’t feel like waiting is no excuse to do with the wrong way.

I believe the bad apples in the group have made it very hard on the good ones who are trying to come here. By bad apples I mean people who are stealing children to try and get across and yes, I know that goes on all the time ... I have border agent friends who have told me ... not to mention the criminals who want to sneak in. I hate that the vetting process takes so long but I think it is for our own safety and it’s something we have to do no matter what. I have sympathy for the folks who are wanting a better life for their children. The same kind of sympathy I have for people who live in horrible conditions right here in our OWN country who are wanting better lives.

But you have to go about things the correct way and there is a process, like it or not. Come one and come all but do it by the book. The fact that it is “difficult” is simply not an excuse. Many things in life are difficult.

Camille Bissell resides in Hot Springs with her husband, Jon. She is a former resident of Saline County, a published author and has written for a variety of publications including USA Today and Live Strong Magazine. You can reach her at camillebissell2019@gmail.com.