I have often seen the argument lately that if you are doing something illegal or are in the country illegally, you don’t have any rights. Actually, you do have rights, there are some basic human rights. Even in our Declaration of Independence, which I know has no legal binding, one of the first ideas this country was built on was that “all men are created equal.” When did we lose sight of that? Some people in our country have just lost basic common decency. The Constitution has very few limits that apply only to citizens, which include the right to vote and to hold certain government jobs. Other than that, the Constitution generally uses the word “persons,” not just citizens, and that matters. Everyone has rights, which aren’t limited to but include the First Amendment. Even if you are in the country illegally, you still have free speech rights, the right to assemble, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. You also have other rights that include protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and you still have the right to due process before the government can take away your liberty. That has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in many cases, holding that constitutional protections like due process and equal protection apply to all persons within the United States, not just citizens, even if someone did not enter the country legally. Due process means the government can’t just detain, deport, or punish someone without following fair and proper legal procedures. It means access to courts, notice of charges, and a chance to be heard. That doesn’t mean immigration laws don’t exist or that violations have no consequences, it means those consequences still have to follow the law and respect basic rights. If our system is truly based on equality, then those protections have to apply even when we disagree with someone’s presence here. Even worse is that these same people who argue that you have to be here legally to have rights are the same people who also argue that it is okay to shoot citizens if they are breaking the law, like what happened in Minnesota. I should say what their version of the law is at that moment, to fit their narrative. While making that argument, they said shooting Alex Pretti was justified, yet they were the same people who were up in arms when Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed while unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol and when threats were being made against members of the U.S. Congress. So they are actually taking their argument one step further they are saying the Bill of Rights is only for United States citizens that they agree with, and not agreeing with them is a violation that takes away all your rights. If that is the case, then we are not living up to any of the ideas that this nation was built on.
