Breaking the law is breaking the law. We cannot pick and choose laws and parts of the Constitution to follow and ignore the rest with impunity. If we could, the United States would not have earned its reputation as a beacon of freedom and justice.
Nor would it have achieved such immense wealth, as investors require transparency and equal regulatory enforcement.
That?s why it makes no sense for Marylanders to finance through their tax dollars CASA de Maryland, a group that openly flouts U.S. immigration laws by helping illegal immigrants to find work and to secure government benefits.
CASA receives local funding, including $2 million from Montgomery County and $245,000 from Baltimore City in fiscal 2008, and got $400,000 from the state in 2005-06, with another $500,000 proposed for ?09.
The fact that many people disagree with the fairness of current laws is no justification for supporting CASA with tax dollars.
Open borders are not a civil right. And unlike slavery, immigration laws do not violate inherent individual rights. They serve the legitimate public purpose of securing U.S. borders and ensuring a level economic playing field.
Disregarding them is the reason so many people can no longer earn a living. Walter Abbott is one of them. The Parkville man said he lost his drywall business because he could not compete with companies who hired lower-paid illegal immigrants. He was so angry he threatened “to choke the life out” of Gov. Martin O?Malley in an e-mail and justifiably faces a six-year prison sentence and up to $5,000 in fines if convicted.
While Abbott?s actions were wrong, so is a system that not only tolerates an uneven playing field but finances it.
As Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke noted in these pages, allowing our two-tiered system also delays or prevents economic and political reform in illegal immigrants? native lands.
Those countries become net beneficiaries of the U.S. economy through remittances and, with fewer people needing work, face less pressure to open their economies. That benefits neither the United States nor the citizens of those countries.
Whether we need new immigration laws to address our changing economy is a legitimate question. Whether to break the law ? and to force taxpayers to pay for it ? is not. Every Maryland jurisdiction should end funding to CASA until the group gives up subverting the law for its own political purposes.
