House set to pass bill which makes aid illegal

[muscadine]

joxn has it exactly right about this bill.

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

You don't have to take that literally to see that making basic aid for anyone illegal is an unthinkable thing to do. Yet, as a country, we're not that far from it. God save us.

EDIT: Well, at least they saved Christmas. :P

EDIT2: Find out how your Representative voted. Let them know how you feel.

Comments

[jerel.livejournal.com]

I think if there was ever anything we could point to as proof of bad leadership, it's this. A moral government does not regulate compassion. How can people who call themselves Christian even consider punishing those who live Christ's words to "love your neighbor as yourself."

[lady-elsinore.livejournal.com]

My opinion on the larger issue at hand may run counter to your own (though I'm not sure--my stance is that our country *has* to get illegal immigration under control; our resources as a country are stretched thinner than ever and schools and hospitals in border states are bearing an enormous burden that they simply can't shoulder indefinitely...). And ultimately, I think there should be penalties for assisting someone in illegally "breaking into" our country (for lack of a better word).

**However** to criminalize saving a person's life is both ridiculous and reprehensible. If someone came upon someone dying in the desert, are they supposed to ask to see a green card before they start CPR or offer water? If they decide to call an ambulance, would the paramedics then be given jail time or forced to forfeit their property because they came to the aid of an illegal immigrant? I think the forfeiture piece of this legislation is the scariest; anytime you give the government a financial incentive to use a law you invite abuse.

Now, in the article you linked, a government official stated that really the only people who would be prosecuted under this law would be those who "harbor" illegal immigrants, and she said that Churches are reading this legislation "too literally." Apparently this woman fails to understand that laws are about words, and that the literal meaning of those words is what defines whether something is or isn't lawful. To have a government official publicly declare what amounts to complete ignorance of the most basic fundamentals of law is frightening indeed. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the irony of the self styled "compassionate conservatives" who continue to pass laws that are anything but compassionate; I can't remember the last time I saw a compassionate act coming from this country's conservatives....

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

That's truly horrifying.

My Congressional representative, Doris Matsui, is the widow of a survivor of a WWII U.S. internment camp for the Japanese, so I don't even have to look up her vote to know that she wouldn't have voted for anything like this.

[daret.livejournal.com]

Hmm, Sorry for the lack of a better term, but.. "Double ewe, tea, ef."

Curses, I not that politically active, but, the way things are happening over there makes me wonder about Florida's policy on immigrants from Cuba, and it makes me remember little Elian Gonzalez. Happy Late-Birthday Lil' Elian Gonzalez. http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/12/07/elian.cuba.ap/ (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/12/07/elian.cuba.ap/)

All those corpses floating in the water, BAH!