Mercy, Justice, and the American Way

I live in Arizona. This should not be news to any of you. Arizona has grown increasingly conservative during my three years here. It's more of a libertarian kind of conservatism, than say "no liquor sales on Sunday" kind of conservatism. One of the hottest issues (as far as number of bills presented in the legislature) is illegal immigration. This is the result of geography, economics, and the Senate President Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) having made combating illegal immigration the sole issue of his entire legislative career. His latest proposal requires hospitals to check patients' immigration status and notify federal authorities if legal status cannot be proven. Hospitals could deny admittance based on status except in emergency situations. (In emergency situations, hospitals would check status after treatment.) The hospitals are opposed to the bill, citing concerns over public health and demands on already-strained staff. Basically, nurses have better things to do with their time than check passports and everyone loses if a person with TB doesn't seek treatment or children don't receive immunizations.

Throughout all the illegal immigration bills is the cry of justice. These people knowingly break the law, a law created for very good reasons. Countries have a right to secure borders, to know who is coming and going and what is being imported and exported. I'm not stupid, I know there are some very bad people regularly crossing the border and there are some very bad things coming (drugs) and going (guns). Private property is being trespassed on. There are many who immigrate legally, despite hardship. Surely, it is just and fair to punish those who knowingly break the law.

But should justice not be tempered with mercy? Judges take mitigating factors into account at sentencing. The whole theme of Les Miserables is that the blind pursuit of justice at all costs ultimately destroys the pursuer. The 1999 Nobel Peace Prize went to Doctors Without Borders, an international organization guided by the belief that all people deserve health care, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. Could it not be that in the particular case of hospitals, that it is not in the interest of society to pursue justice? That--perhaps--the moral high ground, the American way, if you will, is to let doctors do their jobs and to let ICE do theirs.

Unfortunately, I fear that Sen. Pearce and like-minded politicians are utterly blind to anything but the pursuit of justice. In their world of absolutes, they would burn down the city to catch a petty thief. Whether you destroy a society in the name of upholding its values or tearing them down, the result is still the same: a pile of rubble and ashes.

All right, I'll get off my soapbox now.