We used to say that it was illegal for black children and white children to go to school together. We were wrong then and we are wrong now.

One of the objections regularly heard from both sides of the political spectrum is that the recent immigrants are “breaking the law”: They haven’t waited to be admitted through the government-sanctioned process and therefore we have to send them back. Of course it is not that simple; some laws are made to be broken and breaking a bad law is sometimes a reasonable course of action.

Sixty years ago all forty-eight states had laws against selling condoms. Druggists still sold condoms from under the counter. Were they breaking the law or committing an act of civil disobedience? Yesterday some of you drove 75mph in a 65mph zone. The day before that at least one of you rolled a stop sign. Some laws are on the books but not enforced.

Some laws on the books are wrong and need to be changed. Consider these cases: when Rosa Parks wouldn’t give up her bus seat to a white man she was saying this law is wrong. In 1774 when Samuel Adams and others held the Boston Tea Party they were saying that the King is wrong to tax us without representation. When Sam Houston and several thousand other white people decided to settle in the Mexican province of Tejas they were saying that the Mexican immigration laws that made their settlements illegal were wrong.

As you can see from the above examples not all laws are just, not all laws are enforced and sometimes there are customs that supercede law. The bright line that we see from our side of this divide is not as clear from the side of the migrants who want to share in the American dream. What they see is a set of laws and customs that are contradictory and from their perspective irrational and unfair. These are some of the arguments that they make: “If I wait for permission I will never be able to move to the USA but there is someone who will give me a job right now.” “Many of my friends and family have moved and it has worked for them.” “If I have children while I am in the USA the children are US citizens and then they can sponsor me to move here legally.” “All of the people who were here in 1986 were given an amnesty. The Americans must know that their rules are wrong.” Click here to read more about the idea of "Illegal"

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