George Korda

special to the News Sentinel

In a social media conversation several months past, a former local government official argued against Trump administration policies at the U.S. southern border.

People crossing the border illegally were just looking for a better life, after all.

I asked if that same philosophy translated to the government for which he worked. What laws, I asked, could an individual ignore locally if that person was in search of a better life? Unsurprisingly, no answer was forthcoming.

Illegal immigration is a case of “Let’s Pretend,” as in, let’s pretend some laws don’t matter, let’s pretend crime matters when our ideology says it should matter, and let’s pretend politicians we like are being honest about whatever it is they happen to be saying at the moment regardless of how much it differs from what they’ve said in the past.

It’s understandable that people want to come to the U.S., legally or otherwise. To much of the rest of the world, this country is Disney World. Were I a Central American or Mexican in economic distress, chances are good I’d be among those, by fair means or foul, trying to come across the border.

Korda:TDOT, you again have our relationship backwards

Should intentions matter?

Most people illegally coming into the U.S. aren’t doing so to once here commit crimes, intentionally or unintentionally. But what difference does that make? What difference should that make?

A few days ago, on a South Knoxville highway, a man drove a vehicle that killed 22-year-old Pierce Corcoran. As the News Sentinel reported on Jan. 10, “Francisco Eduardo Franco Cambrany, 44, faces charges of criminally negligent homicide and driving without a license or insurance in the death of Pierce Corcoran, 22. Prosecutors said in court Thursday he’s an undocumented immigrant who faces possible deportation.”

I haven’t seen D.J. Corcoran, Pierce’s father, in years, but I got to know D.J., today spokesman for the Knoxville Fire Dept., when he was a photographer at WATE-TV. He and I sometimes worked together in my role as the station’s political analyst. D.J. was a creative, thoughtful, and easy-to-work-with professional. I have no doubt the son took after his father.

Today, the son is dead.

Facts are facts

In 2008, Valentino Masquez Miranda, a man illegally in the country, used a master key at the Knoxville hotel in which he worked to enter the room of Jennifer Lee Hampton, and, as the News Sentinel then reported, “Miranda admitted at a hearing Thursday that he used a master key to get inside a sleeping Jennifer Lee Hampton's hotel room at the Days Inn on Lovell Road and then raped and strangled her in September 2008.”

These incidents are years apart. They are not representative of the majority of people illegally in the U.S. However, the facts are what the facts are, and that fact is that across the country there were, and are, Americans dying at the hands of people who have no legal right to be in the U.S.

Korda:In praise of capitalism (and why cell phones were invented)

It’s often argued that illegal immigrants commit less crime than native-born Americans. Even if true, what difference does that make to the parents and families throughout the country victimized by people who shouldn’t be here in the first place?

Politicians change their positions on illegal immigration as easily as most people change clothes. Such Democrats as former President Barack Obama, Sen. Chuck Schumer, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the past sounded on this issue like conservative Republicans.

Trump makes it all about Trump

President Donald Trump made a goofy promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. He couldn’t. He isn’t, unless he figures out some accounting trick. Instead of American security dominating the discussion it’s all about Trump. Now the government is shut down in a $5 billion (what Trump wants to build the wall) game of chicken for which Trump accepted responsibility but then blamed the Democrats. It’s all about him, but that’s the way he likes things.

Attitudes toward migration are hardening in many countries during 2018, according to research released Dec. 10, 2018, by the Pew Research Center: “In Europe, majorities in Greece (82%), Hungary (72%), Italy (71%) and Germany (58%) say fewer immigrants or no immigrants at all should be allowed to move to their countries…Large majorities in Israel (73%), Russia (67%), South Africa (65%) and Argentina (61%) say their countries should let in fewer immigrants. In every country surveyed, less than a third say their nation should allow more immigrants to enter.”

The research also said this: “The U.S., with 44.5 million immigrants in 2017, has the largest foreign-born population in the world, followed by Saudi Arabia (12.2 million), Germany (12.2 million) and Russia (11.7 million).

Consequence of poor borders control

The bad seed planted by governments failing to be seen as capably controlling borders is that it fosters the rise within their countries of violently anti-immigrant feelings. This can lead to the rise of extremist politicians and ideologies whose positions go far beyond a call to build a wall or ban sanctuary cities.

For many Americans, it’s like this: There are laws, the laws should be obeyed, and if not obeyed, enforced. When Americans can see laws are being obeyed and enforced tension over this issue will ease.

Korda:The political far-right and far-left: Like looking in a mirror

Either that, or we should stop selectively engaging in “Let’s Pretend” that laws matter and let people – immigrants or otherwise – bend or break the laws that stand between them and what they see as a better life, locally or on the U.S. southern border.

What, after all, is the difference?

George Korda is political analyst for WATE-TV, appearing Sundays on “Tennessee This Week.” He hosts “State Your Case” from noon – 2 p.m. Sundays on WOKI-FM Newstalk 98.7. Korda is a frequent speaker and writer on political and news media subjects. He is president of Korda Communications, a public relations and communications consulting firm.