What country wouldn’t want someone like Jonathan Chavez?
By now you might have heard Chavez’s story. He’s the 21-year-old University of Arkansas student who just spent a month in a Florida jail because he is an illegal immigrant.
His “illegal” status is apparently not in dispute, but we’re not talking about someone who sneaked across the border.
In fact, Chavez is here through no fault of his own. His parents brought him to America from Peru when he was 14, entering the country on tourist visas. They were hoping to obtain work visas and stay here. (They are still here and are in the process of becoming citizens.)
Chavez graduated from Rogers High School, where he was a straight-A student and earned a scholarship - first to NorthWest Arkansas Community College, then to the University of Arkansas.
His lawyer, Sandra Lambert, said Chavez has a 3.8 grade point average. He’s an opera singer, and a good one too, we’ve heard. He’s a devout Christian who spent his days in jail praying and translating for Bible study groups.
He’s also an active volunteer. He serves meals at a homeless center. He mentors at-risk children through Ozone, a follow-up program of Camp War Eagle, where he works as a summer counselor and has been named “Counselor of the Year.”
He is, by all accounts we’ve heard, an outstanding young man. Who doubts that he also will be an outstanding adult who will continue to make positive contributions to society?
And yet, Chavez is facing the possibility of deportation to Peru. If that happens, he would have to wait 10 years before he could re-enter the United States.
A hearing with an immigration judge is expected to be set soon.
The law is the law - but the law allows mercy in these cases.
That legal recourse to mercy should be used in this case.
Judges are judges because they have discretion to weigh the law with the circumstances of a particular case. We would urge any judge hearing Chavez’s case to give his circumstances and his character careful consideration.
Chavez is a perfect example of why a strict, inflexible immigration policy - either you’re legal or you’re not, and anyone here illegally must go - sounds simpler than it really is. The demand by some for ruthless application of this rule brings discredit upon those who are working to rein in illegal immigration. Rigidity not only shows lack of heart, but lack of savvy. America benefits from people with the kind of heart and brains that Chavez obviously possesses.
While we’re on the immigration topic: Deporting Chavez is almost as pointless as a bill being floated in Congress called the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011, which proposes to restrict U.S. citizenship to the children of American citizens. Dozens of Republican U.S. House members - including our own representative, Steve Womack - support the bill.
The bill blatantly ignores the 14th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” The proliferation of the term “anchor baby” has tricked many Americans into believing that pregnant women are crossing our borders by the thousands to give birth here. Repeatedly shown to be a gross exaggeration, politicians insist upon pretending as if their proposal counts as progress toward resolving our illegal immigration problem. It doesn’t. This is political showboating at its worst.
The nation’s immigration policy has been broken for a long time, and Americans have every right to be frustrated by this. But passing the Birthright Citizenship Act, or sending Jonathan Chavez back to Peru, won’t fix anything. In fact, these actions will only damage America.
It’s going to take hard work, cooperation and leadership to craft a solution to our problems. Unfortunately, such qualities seem to be in short supply in Washington.
Opinion, Pages 12 on 02/20/2011