Coronavirus Exposed A Contradiction In The Immigration Debate

In normal times, the left and the right are on opposite sides of the illegal immigration issue. The left support open borders and feels it is compassionate to allow those that wants to come here to stay and work, while the right wants to stop illegal crossings into our country because it is undermining our sovereignty.

With the current on-going crisis of the coronavirus, it is front and center how we are to respond. As we see around the world, a border is necessary to contain the spread of this disease. What steps should our country take to protect our citizens?

- Mar. 2020

updated Nov. 2020

One of the argument of conservatives against undocumented immigrants is the health factor. By breaking our laws and crossing our borders without any health exam or immunization, we are exposing our neighborhoods to potential communicable diseases. This problem, though small, never the less exists. We have experienced pockets of outbreak of tuberculosis, hepatitis, and measles, all highly contagious.

The people who support immigrants to our country tend to downplay that fact. They say we need them to do the work Americans don't want to do. That maybe true but maybe not. Now we are confronted with a new health crisis. Will the same argument hold while countries across the globe are issuing mandatory quarantines and shutting borders? Shouldn't we handle illegal crossings differently when there is a global epidemic threat?

Another policy that is under scrutiny is the sanctuary city of some large cities. Again, this highlights another one of the crazy policies with regard to undocumented immigrants. Somehow, if they committed a crime and are caught and went through our judicial process, ICE is prevented from being informed of this status by these sanctuary cities. How is this helping to keep our citizens safe?

The point is these people should be deported based on our current law, having committed a felony and ICE is our federal agency set up to do this. For cities to deliberately avoid informing ICE when these people are released is just putting our citizens at risk of being victims again.

If we extend this same policy to people contracted with coronavirus, what would be the result? If a sanctuary policy is bad for infected individuals, why isn't it the same for immigrants that committed felonies? What is the difference?

Here is link to tracking the latest of the coronavirus worldwide.

Here is a summary based on % of population affected.

Here is projected numbers based on coronavirus model.

Here is latest government website from the CDC on latest information on the coronavirus.

This coronavirus outbreak though a serious health risk, may have a silver lining.

We are now realizing the affect of outsourcing many of our critical products to other countries especially China. Items such as medicine, and supplies and electronics and weapon systems which are critical to our defense should not be out sourced.

The other silver lining is to revisit our immigration policy overall.

The current outbreak has cause only a handful of deaths. By contrast here are a few facts to consider.

The coronavirus knows no race or economic status or country. Anyone can be infected. The only difference is our own immune system and our health status. If a healthy individual is afflicted, he may survive with minor symptoms. However, if someone is compromised in some way, contracting this virus may lead to death.

Since there is no cure or vaccine at this moment, our response in dealing with this virus and its spread is one of quarantine and cleanliness. All common sense practice.

Our response in dealing with illegal immigrants crossing our borders should not be any different. The potential for diseases is real. The potential for crimes against our citizens is also real. If you have doubts, ask the family of Kate Steinle.

As predicted, a second wave is starting but the good news is we now have at least two vaccines that is working.