This story is a good example about how breaking the 10th Commandment leads to some pretty deplorable behavior.
I’m not at all in favor of illegal immigration. I sympathize with taxpayers in states that have a serious problem with illegal immigrants using public funds to school their children or get emergency health care or other services. But I don’t think that somebody’s illegal entry into the country means that legal citizens can seize his property or damage his property or fail to uphold financial agreements.
Nicole Griffin sought to buy a house from her mother’s neighbor, Lorenzo Jimenez. When she couldn’t get an interest rate locked in, she moved in and agreed to pay rent until the loan was worked out. She failed to pay rent, and paperwork issues on the part of Jimenez then delayed closing. When Jimenez tried to evict her, she got nasty. She told the media, the law, the neighborhood all about his residency status and even marched down to his work and tattled to his boss. Jimenez was fired.
“I don’t feel bad for anything that happens to the Jimenez family at this point,” Griffin said recently, “because no one feels bad that all I tried to do was buy a house, and I ended up living back with my mother.”
Read the whining between the lines: “I’m a legal resident. He is not. I don’t own a house. He does. No fair!”
It’s as though she believes the toddler property laws apply to her (but nobody else): if I have it, it’s mine. If I once had it, it’s mine. If I want it, it’s mine.
Sorry, good things come to those who scrimp and save. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that you have the right to own property you didn’t pay for.
Again, I’m not defending the man’s illegal residency. I think illegal immigrants should be deported. I also think our immigration laws are unjust (translation: I think it is too difficult for people from Mexico and southward to get permission to live/work here), but that doesn’t mean that I think we should excuse those who come here without proper permission.
But I am a firm supporter of property rights, and the rights go to the person who paid for the land. He has his American-born daughter’s name on the deed, and her ownership is not in doubt. You can’t take it away from her (or her family) just because you want it.
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Michelle this is interesting. Here in PWC there are quite a few people that are up in arms about illegal immigrants. I’m not sure about my views, so it was interesting to read your thoughts. Yours are much better ordered than mine. 😉 I think I might be for amnesty? It seems to cost money to deport citizens and if they are willing to become legal citizens, I’m all for it. If not, then deport. To have them pay back taxes etc when more than likely they were paid less than minimum wage seems like a hard burden to put on them. And I totally agree that I wish they would change the laws allowing immigration.From another point of view, I *think* from a political strategic move — taking a stand against ii alienates the Latino vote in the Republican party. I think that is what happened in PWC. Many Republicans took a hard stand on illegal immigrants (and I do think for some of these people it does start to become not an illegal issue but a prejudice issue)… and I really think we lost a lot of prolife votes. What do you think?
I think the current immigration laws are unjust, but I do not believe that that warrants breaking the law. So, while I sympathize with the illegal immigrants for their difficulties, I think they should be deported.The problem with amnesty programs is that it only encourages the behavior and doesn’t solve the problem. And you have an additional problem with human trafficking and the dangerous things people do to get in. So I’m pretty hard-line about preventing illegal immigration, both for our nation’s security and to protect those who wish to immigrate from being abused or killed as well.I do think some people are racist and are opposed to immigration of any kind (legal or illegal) for many groups of people. I don’t understand this attitude, but I do think it gives those of us opposed to illegal immigration a negetive association.Unfortunately, pro-immigration groups tend to often be pro-illegal immigration as well and want all sorts of rights, privileges and benefits granted to illegals. It’s quite ridiculous and makes any immigration laws a waste of time and completely unenforceable.I don’t know how the Republicans are about immigration laws. If the general feeling is the need to soften the laws, then they should promote that to win the Latino vote. But if they are truly hard-line and leaning towards isolationism (which is what I think many tend to do), then there is no hope to win the Latino vote, and they ought to reconsider that plank. Do you know the gist of the Republican stance on immigration? (All I really pay attention to is abortion, you know!).
In America, you can own property without being a citizen.Immigration is such a thorny problem. My husband is in construction and knows many illegal immigrants. But many of them have American born children. Many of them are hard workers who are often taken advantage of by their employers (are you gonna report an OSHA violation if you’re illegal? No.) But for every hard working family man, it seems, there’s a hustler or a scammer or a petty criminal. And my husband has been fired and replaced with an illegal immigrant – more than once. Who worked for less money and the employer didn’t have to bother with pesky health insurance or 401(k)s.I’m not sure a wide scale deportation is the answer for every II situation. I think that if an II can show they are gainfully employed, good citizens they could “earn” their citizenship through community service (a probation, I guess, like they do for petty criminals) in addition to citizenship classes.In TX, though, often II’s who are arrested are deported, then they come right back over and commit more crimes, then they are deported again… it’s a vicious cycle.