I saw this argument: "They’re entering the country illegally. They’re skipping the line. If I were in a long line at a steakhouse and someone skipped the whole line, I would want there to be consequences for that person."
First, let’s get this out of the way: the "legality" of citizens being victimized by ICE runs the gamut, because ICE doesn’t care about that.
However, sure, some victims have not gone through all of the legal hoops required to live in the U.S., so let’s take a look at this line cutting analogy.
Someone skips the line at a steakhouse. Except a steakhouse doesn’t work in this metaphor, does it? If the line is too long at a restaurant I’ll just go somewhere else. Instead, let’s say we’re in line at the DMV- a place nobody goes unless they need to, and where waiting your turn is notoriously punishing, largely due to mismanagement by the U.S. government. Perfect.
So we’re in line at the DMV and someone skips to the front. But wait a second- the person making this argument was a U.S. citizen from birth, and so am I. So, really, in this story we’re not in line at the DMV. In fact, we’ve never had to wait in line at this particular DMV, which in this story is a metaphor for U.S. citizenship. We don’t have personal experience with this line, but I’ve heard stories and I’m sure he has too. Jokes comparing the wait to purgatory or even hell are somewhat pervasive in U.S. media. So, having an abstract idea of what the people in line are going through, we continue the analogy.
Someone cuts the line in which I do not wait and have never waited. Do I think it’s wrong? Unfair to the many people waiting their turn? Sure. Do I think that the line cutter deserves to be murdered or detained indefinitely with no legal resources or even contact with the outside world (by the way I’m not scaling this down for the sake of the metaphor because I think it is just as disproportionate in immigration as it would be at the DMV)? Absolutely not. Should they be banned from the DMV? I don’t think so. At most, maybe send them to the back of the line.
But before you do that, why did they cut? This place has so many armed guards just waiting to dole out some punishment on line cutters and suspected line cutters and people they think look like what a line cutter might look like. It’s like they only hire guards who get off on hurting people. And there are so many of them and they have so much shiny new hurting people equipment (because the guy who makes hurting people stuff helped the manager get his job managing the DMV). Why would anyone risk cutting the line in front of those guys? Oh, there was a medical emergency? Someone could have died if they didn’t? Well that changes things for me. People whose lives are in immediate danger should be given priority automatically, I wouldn’t even call that cutting. In fact, why isn’t there a separate line, for emergencies? Oh, there is, but that one is backed up too? Why is this DMV so poorly run? There are only two employees helping the people in line but there are thirty employees killing and detaining line cutters. Who thought that was an efficient way to staff this place? Why is nothing being done to improve this process? No, don’t add more racists with guns to the staff how could you possibly think that’s what I meant?!
Okay, now I’m not even thinking about the line cutters, I’m too angry about the fact that my tax dollars are being allocated more toward punishing desperate people than helping them.
