The sins of the parents...

George Steinbrenner is best known for owning the New York Yankees, beginning in 1973.  He issued unusual edicts to his players.  He instituted an appearance policy that said "All players, coaches and male executives are forbidden to display any facial hair other than mustaches (except for religious reasons), and scalp hair may not be grown below the collar. Long sideburns and 'mutton chops' are not specifically banned."  

You may have known that.  Did you know that Mr. Steinbrenner was a convicted felon?  He pleaded guilty in 1974 to conspiracy and making illegal campaign contributions to the Richard Nixon reelection campaign.  Doing that avoided his being tried on a 15 count indictment brought by Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski.

The campaign contributions that were illegal came in the form of employees of Mr. Steinbrenner's business, American Shipbuilding Company, being paid money through payroll that they would then turn around and donate in their own names to the Nixon campaign.  This allowed the existing campaign contribution limits to be ignored.

Hank Steinbrenner and his brother Hal Steinbrenner now own the Yankees.  They were born prior to 1973 when the campaign contributions were made.  Let's suppose for a moment that Mr. Steinbrenner had opened accounts in the names of his sons and donated money from those accounts to the Nixon campaign.

Should his sons be held liable for what he did?  Hank was 16 at the time and Hal was only 4.  To hold them responsible for what their father did seems unfair.  Yet that is the logic of deporting people who were children when their parents (or others) brought them to the United States in violation of our immigration laws.  Why is someone held responsible for an action that took place when they were incapable of forming any criminal intent?  

To those who say deportation is not a punishment, are you kidding me?  To those who say ICE isn't going too far in their enforcement actions at the moment, are you seriously deluded?

Jorge Garcia was brought to the U.S. when he was 10 years old.  He has never been convicted of a crime.  He has never even received a traffic ticket.  He lived in the Detroit area with his wife and their two children.  He was deported back to Mexico on January 15th, the day we celebrated the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He sought to become a legal resident, but the first attorney "botched" the paperwork.  In spite of the family spending over $125,000 trying to get legal status for him, he is now in Mexico.

Lukasz Niec is an interal medicine doctor at a hospital in Michigan.  He has a "green card" but was arrested by ICE.  The family suspects the reason for his arrest is that he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge when he was 17 years old.  He and his family were not informed at the time that a guilty plea could put his permanent residency in jeopardy.

I suspect that ICE is going after Dr. Niec and other Caucasians who they can find a way to begin deportation proceedings for, in order to try to fight allegations that the Trump Administration's handling of this issue is racist.  

If a child's parent files a fraudulent tax return using the child in a scheme to pay less income tax, it is the parent who is punished.  Not the child.  If a parent (or someone else) brings a child across the border in violation of the law, the parent is responsible and should be the only one held accountable.

This is why our immigration system must be fixed.  Not just DACA.  I have no problem with finding a way to seal the border, although building a great big wall isn't the answer.  One way to approach the problem is to spend the money that would go toward building a wall into enforcement of current immigration law/problems.  Ensure those here on tourist and student visas leave when those visas expire.  Track the presence of citizens of the 38 nations who can come to the U.S. for business or pleasure without a visa much more closely.  

Dreamers is not the best label for those brought here as children.  Innocents is a better label.