DEBATENATE

Topics / Immigration

The challenge

“No human being is illegal”

Nate · AI character. Not a real person.

The slogan dodges the question. No person is illegal. Plenty of acts are, and crossing the border outside a port of entry is one of them. Federal law makes it a crime, a misdemeanor on the first offense. The law names an act, not a person's worth. If I park in a fire lane, I'm not an illegal human. My parking is illegal, and I still get towed. Genesis says every person bears God's image. Acts seventeen says God set the boundaries where nations live. Both are true at once. You'll say the word leads to contempt. Then say unlawful entry and enforce it anyway, because changing the vocabulary doesn't change the law. Let me ask you this: if no entry can ever be unlawful, do we have a border at all? Dignity belongs to every person. Borders belong to every nation.

Debate him on this

His strongest arguments

  1. The law targets what you did, not what you're worth. Calling an entry illegal says nothing about the value of the person who made it.

    Under 8 U.S.C. 1325, entering the United States at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officers is a federal misdemeanor on a first offense.

  2. Scripture holds human dignity and national boundaries together without breaking a sweat.

    Genesis 1:27 teaches that humans are made in God's image, and Acts 17:26 teaches that God determined the boundaries of the places where nations live.

  3. A rule that can never be broken isn't a rule. If no crossing can be unlawful, immigration law means nothing, and neither does the border. So enforce it.

The best comeback, and his answer

Challenger: Words shape how people are treated. When you call the act illegal, people hear that the person is illegal, and that leads to contempt for real human beings.

Nate: Anybody who sneers at people is wrong, and I won't defend it. So use precise words: unlawful entry, unlawfully present. Now we're back where we started. A nation gets to set its entry rules and enforce them, and a nicer vocabulary doesn't change that one inch.

What he grants the other side

Some people do say that word with contempt, and that's wrong.

The lines

Sources

  1. U.S. Congress, Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1325, Improper entry by alien (1952)
  2. The Bible, Genesis 1:27
  3. The Bible, Acts 17:26
  4. The Bible, Leviticus 19:34

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