There’s a way to respect the law without being jerks
Oct 27, 2017, 6:46 AM
Maybe when the U.S. government builds a border wall, it can include a hospital accessible from Mexico, Dave Ross suggests. (AP Photo/Elliott Spagat)
(AP Photo/Elliott Spagat)
In America, we believe the law applies to everyone, even 10-year-old Rosa Hernandez who needed emergency surgery this week.
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Hernandez has cerebral palsy and was being rushed to the hospital for gall bladder surgery when she arrived at a Texas highway checkpoint — an internal highway checkpoint in Freer, Texas.
The checkpoint is on the main road between Laredo and Corpus Christi and is intended to enforce the law against wall-jumpers. That’s why Rosa’s parents, who snuck into Texas illegally when Rosa was three months old, asked a properly- documented cousin to accompany her to the hospital.
“Her lawyer says when customs and border patrol agents discovered she was not a U.S. citizen they followed her to the hospital.”
Two two border agents stood guard in her hospital room and then escorted her to a holding facility in San Antonio, Texas; 150 miles from her parents. Because, as border agents told CBS’s Anna Werner, the law is the law.
“They said once medically cleared, she will be processed accordingly and they have informed the Mexican consulate of her situation.”
I know there was no intention to be cruel. You have to set an example, regardless of the cost.
But I was thinking — I know America has to come first, and everybody else second — but maybe as part of that big beautiful wall we could build a modest but functional charity hospital. The doctor’s entrance could be on the American side and the patient entrance on the Mexican side to show that there’s a way to respect the rule of law without looking like jerks.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
