Jose Arturo Guerra is a senior at South Texas University. It was discovered that he is in the United States illegally. It is quite possible he will be deported. His fate will be decided Wednesday at his immigration hearing.
This is not Guerra's first brush with immigration law. In 2005 Guerra's visa expired while he was home visiting in Mexico. Not willing to apply for a new one, Guerra decided to sneak back into the U.S. He was apprehended and sent home. Undeterred, he made a second attempt and succeeded. It was not until last December that Guerra's status was discovered and his problems began. What has complicated Guerra's immigration problems is that when he was apprehended the first time he falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen. That claim could disqualify him from ever becoming a one.
Guerra and his supporters are making the case that not only would his deportation be unfair, it would be financially foolish. They are questioning whether it would make sense to deport someone after spending thousands of dollars to educate him. Once again, they are missing the point. The thousands of dollars that were spent on Guerra's education would not have been spent had his immigration status been known. The money spent to educate him was spent under false pretenses. It is not as if that money would have been wasted had it not been spent on Guerra. It would simply have gone to someone else, ideally someone here legally.
Guerra is not a victim here. His predicament is entirely his own fault. He was apprehended entering the country illegally. Even though he knew that what he was doing is illegal, he made a second attempt. Guerra compounded his actions by wrongfully claiming he was a U.S. citizen, a much more serious offense.
Pity for Guerra should be reserved. He is not being banished to a life of misery and desolation in the wilderness. He has family in Mexico. If it is true, as was reported, that Guerra hardly knows them, that is not a problem the U.S. should be concerned with. Indeed, whatever hardships and deprivations Guerra might face in Mexico are not due to U.S. immigration policy. They are matters to be taken up with the Mexican government.
Jose Guerra is a poster child for immigration reform. He is intelligent, hard working and ambitious. It would be easy to see him as a victim of fate or circumstance. But he is not. Guerra's problems are due to his violation of U.S. law. There are punishments for breaking the law. The punishment for entering the U.S. illegally is deportation. The U.S. has laws on immigration. An important job of government is to make sure that laws are obeyed. Guerra knowingly violated U.S. law. He was caught and now he is being punished. There is nothing unjust about it. That is precisely how the system is supposed to work. If you do not like U.S. immigration laws, change them. In the mean time, like all laws, they should be enforced.
Guerra was hoping that he would not be caught and that, if he was, his transgression would be overlooked. He was mistaken on both counts. Everyone who enters the country illegally hopes that they will not be caught. The porous nature of our border encourages that hope. Everyone who is caught hopes they will not be punished. The haphazard enforcement of immigration laws encourages that hope.
Whatever the lamentations of immigration activists, Guerra is not being persecuted. He is being punished for violating the law. He is not being sent to jail. He is being sent home.
