It was saddening to read recently about a Harvard University student who faces deportation to Mexico because he is an illegal alien. But if our nation’s immigration laws are to have any meaning, they cannot be overlooked just because a person is a good student or hard worker.
The illegal alien, Eric Balderas, has completed his first year at prestigious Harvard and apparently has done good academic work. It is to his credit that he has worked hard.
But he was boarding a plane from San Antonio to Boston recently when he tried to use a Mexican ID and his student ID to get on the flight. His lack of a U.S. government- or state government-issued identification apparently is what tipped off immigration authorities, who took him into custody.
Now, he faces deportation, and liberal Harvard is calling for him to be allowed to stay in this country despite his illegal status. What’s worse, some are holding up Balderas as an example of why Congress should enact a law to legalize tens of thousands of illegal aliens — and even grant them in-state college tuition rates.
We understand why many people around the world want to make America their home and benefit from our blessings of liberty. But neither a college campus nor the Congress of the United States should grant any phony sense of legitimacy to illegal immigration.