CNN Headlines Sob Story, Rejects Consequences

CNNs Headline story on its website this morning features an 8th grader who is separated from her mother and older siblings due to immigration laws. The article states around 3 million children are in the same situation as Julie Quiroz. Click here to watch the story.

Quiroz was born in Washington state years ago, after her mother and older brothers illegally came to the US. She has a younger sister who was also born here, thus they are the only two US citizens in their family. One year ago immigration officials found her mother and brothers and deported them back to Mexico. Quiroz went with her family back to Mexico, but, having grown up in Washington, felt out of place.

A man named Joe Kennard, from Texas, heard about this story and offered to have Quiroz live with his family so she could go to school in America. This, of course, would mean splitting up the family. Reluctantly, Quiroz chose to finish school in America. Kennard asks CNN why the children are punished in such a case, knowing well that the illegal parent is being lawfully and rightly punished for breaking the law. This is certainly the side that CNN seems to be taking in this article: How can the big bad United States punish a child citizen for what their parent did wrong?

Knowing that 3 million children are in this precarious situation is heartbreaking. But what the United States chooses to do in these cases is not an issue of emotion. It is a matter of law.

We have laws securing property rights. If someone steals my computer they have broken the law and nearly every American would agree that the thief should be punished. However, if you follow the logic of those (seemingly including CNN) who believe families should not be deported in the case of illegal immigrant status, then you would surely argue that this thief should not receive jail time for stealing my computer. After all, this thief just stole my computer so he could let his child use it to write essays. Without a computer to research and write with, his child might fail out of school. The man only broke the law because he was looking out for his family.

But back here in reality, if this thief is caught with my computer, he would go to jail. To follow the same pattern as Quiroz's case, let's say the thief was a single parent. Now this parent is in jail and his child neither has a computer nor a parent at home. How can the big bad US of A allow such a tragedy?

PEOPLE! Don't blame the US government for enforcing laws. The point at which tragedy begins is not when the government enforces its laws. The point at which tragedy begins is when anyone, in both my hypothetical case and Quiroz's case its the parent, breaks a law. Whether or not they know what the consequences are for their actions, they must take responsibility for those actions. Even though Ana Quiroz had good intentions of a life in a better place for her children, she broke the law and should well know that her choice will greatly impact the people around her.

The fact of life on Earth as we know it is that everything we do or do not do affects the people around us, whether the effects are visible or not. We are interconnected, get used to that and understand that our sins affect the people we love and vice versa. If this world was a perfect place, Ana Quiroz and her family wouldn't have to worry about her immigration status. But it is an imperfect world that we live in that includes too much heartbreak.

Let your heart break for the Quiroz family, but don't think for a second that the US government shouldn't have deported Mrs. Quiroz.