Immigrants are not lawbreakers

Thanks: Elvira Arellano

Date: Jun 14, 2007 10:54 PM


STATEMENT OF ELVIRA ARELLANO TO LOU DOBBS

Dear Mr. Dobbs,

You say we are lawbreakers, but I say we know what it means to live under the yoke of a broken law.

You say you want to live in a nation of laws but how much more do we who have suffered under this broken immigration law long to live in a place truly governed by laws. In fact it is only our obedience to God’s law, which is never broken, which sustains us and our families.

The President says we must pay fines and wait in line while those who have employed us for their profit and those who have lived off of our taxes and benefited from our labor owe nothing – and we are willing to accept this because we long for a nation that lives up to its promise, a nation where everyone is equal under the law.

The “Grand Compromise” is not amnesty for us but it is amnesty for those who have benefited from our labor and our taxes and our purchasing power. I notice for instance that you have not refused advertising from Menards and Comcast although millions of dollars from undocumented families are accepted in their stores.

Out of the darkness of this broken law and this broken system, we join with the great majority of people that want to live in the light of a nation restored to its promise

And yet you would keep us in the shadows and the whole nation in darkness. You spread hate and fear. You would close your doors to your neighbors, to those who pick and prepare and serve your food and replace the brotherhood of democracy with the poison of selfishness and racism.

Today we appeal to the nation to reject the poison of fear mongering and the deceitfulness of hate and division. We are in the labor pains of giving birth to something new and whole. Don’t let the enemies of love and of families abort this delivery. I am not a criminal. I am not a terrorist. I am a mother of a U.S. citizen child. He is not an anchor. He is a child of God and a U.S. citizen.

Let us fix the broken law and be again a nation of laws.

Let us turn our ears away from the darkness of division and walk in the light of reconciliation while our moment is here.

Sincerely,

Elvira Arellano