A Message from Tom Jefferson About Illegals

A message channeled from Monitcello.

Let an older man from an older time with more experience in the matter speak up.

In some ways this issue is akin to my problems with slaves. While I wanted to do the right thing, I was inhibited by the laws and by the difficulty in determining what a fair solution might be.

If I freed my slaves I wold be breaking the law and putting these simple people out into an environment they were not prepared for.

Your problem is similar.

First your law, the 14th Amendment to the damned Constitution:

It is not at all true that the intent was to protect children born in our lands. In act, early decisions of the Court suggest that was not eh case. The clear purpose of Section 1 was to provide that former slaves born in the United States would be citizens.

At the time, the US did not yet have a concept of legal vs illegal immigrant so "intent" of the original ruling must be newly invented. In fact, in in 1898 the Court decided that Wong Kim Ark, a child of a Chinese diplomat, born in the USA did have citizenship rights. The only exceptions to this rule identified in Wong Kim Ark concern diplomats, enemy forces in hostile occupation of the United States, and members of Native American tribes.

The Court has, again, never ruled on the eligibility of children born in the United States to illegal immigrant parents are entitled to birthright However, on primniple of law in unsettled areas is to refer to international standards. This type of guarantee—legally termed jus soli or "birthright citizenship"— does not exist in most of Europe or Asia where citizenship has been defined by new laws derived (more or less) independent of a King, but does exist in Europe where citizenship laws arise from older concepts of being subjects to the crown.

In summary, citizen Goldstein, I find it unlikely that the members of the court anticipated this problem. However, in my time the court did understand slavery. Even those of us who wanted to end it had the same problem you have now. How, once slaves are here, do you send them home without doing an injustice? Where is their real home?

One thing about your Torie friend's ides is that halting the awarding of NEW citizenship to illegals might be a bit like our deciding not to bring in more slaves. The result would be, I would guess, a permanent collection of resident non citizens with a status all to similar to the status of my slaves.

Perhaps you folks in 2008 need a dose of what Mr. Lincoln brought to my homeland in the 1860's. If you stop allowing illegals to work .. tat is stop importing slaves .. the problekm will eventually stop. If you then fee all the existing slaves, i.e. fire the illegals, then your only prolebm will be the same as ours was .. waht happens with millions of freed slaves?

Looking at your marvelous Mr. Obama, one thing is very clear to me. I was wrong about the limited abilities of Africans. So, taking slavery as a precedent rather than some weak interpretation by a Court I never like anyway, I suspect the immigrants can learn very well to eb Americans. I suggest that of course all illegals, just like all of my slaves, should be citizens just as if they were born here as slaves.

NUFF said!