Life, Liberty, and the Immigrant
The Declaration of Independence is a beacon of freedom that calls to over a million immigrants to the U.S. every year. Unfortunately a sinking reality facing the immigrant community in today’s political landscape is that the very institutions meant to help them are hunting them down. What would the Founding Fathers think of this actuality? What would they tell us about the direction of our immigration policy and enforcement over the past several years?
Earlier this month in Maine a young father named Joan Sebastian Guerrero was shot and killed by an ICE agent. After hours of media silence the DHS responded that their agent only fired his gun because he “feared for public safety.” It was also confirmed that Mr. Guerrero, who is originally from Columbia, was not even the target of a nearby “illegal alien surveillance operation.”
The event has already sent emotional shockwaves through Biddeford, the country, and the world. Neighbors heard the gunshots ring out and some of their security cameras even caught glimpses of the incident on film. Footage of ICE agents pulling the young man’s body from his car was quickly circulated on social media and to news outlets. Mayor Liam LaFountain states he is in mourning along with his community and has called “for a full and thorough, transparent investigation.”
If our country’s Founding Fathers read the headline about Guerrero’s murder, or any of the headlines related to recent ICE activity, they would likely empathize more with the immigrants than the agents. Both immigrants and the founders understood what it meant to sacrifice everything you’ve ever known for a chance at freedom. Like so many other immigrants my family came to America seeking safety, security, stability, and opportunities - not just for themselves but for future generations.
Immigrants and the founders both understood that liberty and character are two sides of the same coin. They both embodied the type of courage Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke of when he said “history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.” A universal truth about liberty codified in our Declaration of Independence is that every single person is unique and valuable or “created equal.”
My family did not immigrate to America to live in fear, to be constantly surveilled, or to face prejudice and suspicion every single day. Immigrants certainly do not risk their time, treasure and talents coming to our country to be gunned down by masked perpetrators in the street. It is nothing short of tragic that we are seeing the very fabric of our founding principles being unraveled before our eyes. The institutions meant to protect us are now "annihilating justice” and “limiting and destroying rights” as Frederic Bastiat warned.
If immigrants have more in common with our Founding Fathers than with ICE agents, then each and every American must stand in support of immigrants at this moment in history. Especially as we celebrate 250 years of “the greatest sentence ever written” we must vehemently protect every single person’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Over the past several years we have watched as our cornerstone values have been slowly knocked out of place and it is time for us all to rededicate ourselves to setting things right.
