No One Is Illegal
One of my friends brought a few dozen flowers to work, and was handing them out. I asked what they were for, and he said it was for a rally for someone who was being detained. The person couldn't be deported, but also they were not allowing them in the country, and so they were in jail, and had been for over five years. At the rally, there had been a flower for every day he had been detained. In an effort to understand why this had happened, I asked if they had entered the country illegally. Rather brusquely, my friend responded, "No one is illegal." They rather had a point. What does it mean to be illegal? Your very existence is against the law? Someone's actions may be illegal, but a person? Your very existence? That is pretty twisted, quite messed up. Of course, when someone is said to be "illegal" they don't mean they aren't allowed to exist, but that they're not allowed to exist "here." But really, is that any better?