Update on “My Dad, The Illegal Immigrant”

This recent post drew seven times the normal readership for ProfLERoy. That statistic, plus encouragement from some to publish the piece more widely, has led to publication (this coming Monday) in Law360, an online journal with a readership of 700,000 mostly lawyers.

The editor said the piece needs a tighter connection to lawyers—and while most of my readers are not lawyers, you might find the new part (it’s brief) interesting. I learned by making these edits and am happy to share!

Anti-immigration policies are not merely political. They require legal articulation. In practical terms, that means cadres of lawyers are needed to draft legislation and executive orders, and issue administrative rulings and court opinions. Recent experience shows that America has no shortage of brilliant legal talent that is poised to make Mr. Trump’s campaign promises of excluding Muslims and deporting millions of illegal aliens a reality.

Kris Kobach, a Yale J.D., is a prime example. He played a key role in drafting Arizona SB 1070, a law that criminalized the employment of illegal aliens until the Supreme Court, on a 5-3 vote, struck down that provision. 
Mr. Kobach had the good fortune, according to his online biography, of being born in Madison, Wisconsin. Whether he is Baptist by birth or choice, it’s true that Baptists have not been subjected to genocide. 
But I wonder if Mr. Kobach understands that Baptists started as a persecuted faith in a foreign country, England. Roger Williams began America’s first Baptist colony, the Providence Plantation, in 1636 to provide sanctuary to religious minorities, not just people of his faith. Try to reconcile Mr. Kobach’s passion for bringing the heavy boot of state authority down on illegal immigrants with Roger Williams’ vision of America, and you might conclude that Mr. Kobach would ship Mr. Williams back to England.

My father, by contemporary comparison, was less fortunate than Mr. Kobach….

If Mr. Trump is elected, he’ll need a small army of lawyers to draft regulations to make good on his promise to deport millions of people who are here illegally, and to exclude Muslims. If you’re inclined to be that lawyer, my father’s 56 years of illegal status in America is meant as an example for you to consider. Judging from Mr. Kobach’s lawsuits and model legislation, he believes he has made America better for Americans. Tell that to my Dad’s employees, some of whom were born in America and many who weren’t.  They would advise you to put your legal talents to better use. If you join the Trump deportation and exclusion team, you will make America whiter, more Christian, less Hispanic, and also less Asian— but you will also throw out America’s best hope to be great.