Ashley Hendricks, a University of Alabama student from Huntsville, holds a sign and chants while protesting HB-56 on Wednesday. Approximately 40 students gathered for a protest of the immigration bill on the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, Ala.Hundreds of disorderly "Occupy Wall Street" protesters have been arrested nationwide in recent weeks.
But demonstrators for a different cause were arrested in Alabama not long ago. About 100 pro-illegal immigration protesters in Montgomery walked around the state Capitol chanting slogans such as "Undocumented, unafraid" and "No papers, no fear." Several were arrested when they sat in a street and refused to move.
What made this scene particularly troubling is that the admitted illegal aliens who participated in the protest are highly unlikely to be deported.
That's because the Obama administration has pulled back on deportations of illegal aliens who have not committed serious crimes of some sort after they arrived in the United States. As The New York Times put it, the administration's goal is "halting [deportations] of many illegal immigrants with no criminal record."
The administration is conducting a "review" of 300,000 cases of illegal aliens who are already in the court system. These are not merely illegal aliens who are hiding out in society but who have already been apprehended. There is no good reason to halt the deportation process and set them free.
Yet the administration wants immigration agents to "use prosecutorial discretion when deciding whether to pursue a deportation," the Times reported, with "an eye to closing cases that are low-priority ... . [Illegal] Immigrants whose cases are closed will be allowed to remain in the United States ... ."
The newspaper added, "The approach of deporting some illegal immigrants but not others requires a deep change in the mentality of the agents, who have long operated on the principle that any violation was good cause for deportation."
Indeed, such violations are good cause for deportation because they are in defiance of our laws, and we are supposed to be a nation of laws. Critics have rightly said the Obama administration is going around Congress to give amnesty to illegal aliens -- amnesty that Congress has refused to grant through legislation.
Considering the administration's policy of coddling illegal aliens rather than enforcing the law, it is no wonder illegal aliens now openly join protests and chant slogans such as "Undocumented, unafraid" and "No papers, no fear." The president has sent a message that they need not fear deportation even though they are in this country unlawfully.
When lawlessness is exalted -- or ignored -- our nation is bound to get more lawlessness.