While I was preparing the Carnival of the Liberated this morning, I was sorely tempted to include this great post from Fayrouz in Beaumont. While they’re by far the most numerous, Mexicans and Central and South Americans aren’t the only immigrants into this country these days. They’re not even the only illegal immigrants. Fayrouz, a legal immigrant into this country, notes that most Middle Eastern illegal immigrants into this country come here legally on visa and then, well, just sort of disappear. They know very well that they’re acting illegally and, consequently, they don’t have the same sense of entitlement that the illegals who are demonstrating in our streets these days seem to have.
That’s another pet peeve of mine: the sense of entitlement.  The interviews on the radio and in the newspaper repeatedly characterize the demonstrations as for the rights of illegal aliens:
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Florentino Cruz, an illegal worker from Mexico, joined hundreds of thousands of immigrant rights supporters in rallies across the nation, holding a sign with a simple message: “The USA is made of immigrants like me.”
The protests Monday were the culmination of more than two weeks of mounting pressure for federal lawmakers to overhaul America’s immigration policies.
“Before the marches, they only saw us as criminals. Now they are changing, but still not enough,” said Renato Cuchillo, 50, an undocumented Mexican factory worker in Los Angeles.
I’m sorry to rain on their parade but they aren’t demonstrating for rights they’re demonstrating for privileges. Neither American law nor Mexican law nor the U. N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes a right of immigration. The rights argument is quite the other way around: Americans have the right not to have their country invaded by immigrants who are indifferent to our laws however pure their motives might be. We may elect to extend such rights to them but that’s an act of mercy.
Sense of Entitlement is the worst. My particularly twist on this peeve relates to spoiled children. But the concept has validity and vitality in all aspects of life; it’s certainly not limited to immigration issues. I second this Peeve.
Of course I third the peeve. There is no marching for “rights” as you say – but I hasten to add that I disagree with your characterization as well – that the marchers are “demonstrating for privileges”. More accurate descriptions of the marcher’s intent are that they are marching against HR 4437, that they are marching against the further criminalization of illegal aliens, or that they are marching in favor of a path to eventual citizenship. But none of those is “headlinable” – which leads me to be somewhat forgiving towards the newspaper editors when they use less precise terms such as “rights”.
Let me hasten to add, LaurenceB, that I favor the merciful way: I think that many of the illegals should have their status normalized and have the path to full citizenship made available to them. But I dislike threats, actual or implied, and I adamantly disagree with the assertion (made in almost every news article) that they’re demonstrating for rights.