The news that an immigration judge terminated the deportation case against an undocumented father of three U.S. Marines should be a moment of reflection on how our nation deals with illegal immigration.
Narcisco Barranco has lived in the United States for three decades. He has no criminal record and worked as a landscaper in Santa Ana. Mr. Barranco is an example of someone arrested by the Department of Homeland Security to meet a quota, not because he is a danger to the United States. Far from it. He’s raised three sons who pledged their lives to defend our nation as Marines. Mr. Barranco has applied for Parole in Place, which shields undocumented parents of U.S. military personnel from deportation and provides a pathway to permanent residency. This is good public policy. Imagine the morale of our military personnel if they knew their own government was trying to deport their parents for no reason other than coming to the country illegally.
When I learned about Mr. Barranco, I thought about the book “The Storm Before the Storm,” by Mike Duncan. Mr. Duncan quotes Cicero, the Roman statesman, scholar, lawyer and writer, about immigration: “It may not be right … for one who is not a citizen to exercise the rights and privileges of citizenship,” but actually expelling non-Romans was “contrary to the laws of humanity.”
Cicero knew that immigration made Rome stronger, not weaker, much like Mr. Barranco’s three sons make America stronger, not weaker. Deportation quotas are not the answer. DHS should target violent criminals, not people like Mr. Barranco. President Donald Trump deserves credit for largely solving the problem at our southern border, but polls overwhelmingly show that his administration’s actions in American cities, such as Minneapolis and Los Angeles, risk snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.
Philip Wasserman
Stevenson Ranch
