The Rude Pundit: High School Valedictorian Who Wants to Cure Cancer, Go Home

So this guy, Eric Balderas, a college student who was valedictorian of his high school class, no, even better, a Harvard University student, no, wait, even betterer, a Harvard University student majoring in molecular and cellular biology who wants to cure cancer, was brought to the United States from Mexico when he was four years old by his mother. The twist, of course, is that they've been living here illegally for the last 15 years. So Balderas was stopped by airport security last week before boarding a flight from San Antonio, where he was visiting his mom, to Boston, where he is, as mentioned before, studying to one day cure cancer.

This kid's a better human being than at least 90% of the people who get to be Americans, so of course he faces deportation to Mexico because we are a stupid, fearful, racist nation, and it's what we do. Bill O'Reilly will lose his fucking mind if an illegal drinks and drives, but you never hear about people like Balderas, just trying to negotiate a medieval immigration system and do well in this country. Unlike nearly every other undocumented immigrant, Balderas has Harvard behind him, so there might actually be a happy ending, god bless the plutocracy.

Meanwhile, Arizona, continuing in its quest to force white people to keep up their own damn lawns, is considering a bill that would deny citizenship to so-called "anchor babies." An anchor baby is a child born to an illegal immigrant mother on American soil. Our pesky Constitution says those kids are automatically citizens. But, because the state's cruel and idiotic, Arizona doesn't need no stinking 14th Amendment, even though it would seem like the decision as to who is and who is not a citizen of, you know, the nation would be decided at a federal level. Apparently, states' rights extends to disregarding the laws of the land.

If Balderas is deported and he goes to a Mexican university to finish his studies, the Rude Pundit hopes he comes up with a cure for cancer and his patent says that it can never be sold or used in the United States. When someone asks Balderas why he would deny the nation just to the norte a miracle drug, Balderas could say, "Because fuck them."

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

Being smart or a generally good person, or even a HARVARD student, does not mean you are above the law.

Nobody is above the law!

Right, Mr. Bush?

My point exactly.

That war criminals aren't prosecuted, and neither are a lot of other crimes. Or that enforcement is selective and arbitrary and grossly abused particularly in relation to brown skinned people.

This was a child who was brought into this country by his mother. We don't even know if this young man even knew he was illegal. It's possible his mother provided him with false docs right from the get-go. We don't know the facts at all about this case.

The immigration system in the US is broken and deeply racist. Mexicans, especially poor ones, stand virtually zero chance of getting a visa to the US while those with the big bucks get in. We exploit their resources and poverty via NAFTA without allowing them free access to the wealthy areas (the US and Canada) so they can improve their own lot in life.

Your cavalier statement that "nobody" is above the law isn't based on any kind of factual basis at all. Unless you mean to out yourself as someone who really means that brown skinned people are the only ones who should have (arbitrary, capricious, medieval, and racist) laws enforced against them.

For his MBA..

He came here when he was four years old. Basically spent his entire life here, at least his cognitive years.. And there are indeed people above the Law.. Bush*, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Pearle, Wolfowitz, Addington, Ollie North, just to name a very few that are indeed "Above the Law".

If he's old and smart enough to get into Harvard he should be old and smart enough to have gotten a VISA by now.

to maybe get a visa -- he got a full scholarship to Harvard.

Memo to some of the posters on the LBN thread- the rude one's talking to you.

That laws being arbitrarily enforced, capricious and frequently ignored is *wrong.* My statement is not meant to be factual at all. It's ideological! And the fact that it does not accurately describe reality is to my dislike. I believe that everyone, immigrants, citizens, poor people, rich people, and yes, especially bankers, CEOs, and politicians should absolutely be held to the law! But, and I believe this is an important principle, you can't call for the latter without also calling for the former.

This case, I think clearly illustrates the monumental clusterfuck that is our national immigration policy. But that is not a reason to IGNORE the law, it is a reason to CHANGE the law.

EDIT: Supposed to be reply to 5

We currently have stories about law enforcement not enforcing the law in regards to evictions for example. Do you believe those people who have been fraudulently scammed by the banks, but who are trying to re-negotiate their loans, per the NEW FEDERAL LAW that is also currently being ignored, should be chucked out of their houses too? After all, it's the law!

I don't believe a compassionate Dem believes that. Do you? I believe that most Dems believe the banking/mortgage industry is fucked up. A 'clusterfuck" of bad laws. Do we continue to chuck people out of their house while we wait for Congress to change the laws? Or does law enforcement simply stop enforcement of evictions (like is already happening).

But it's only immigration and enforcing THAT law with absolute rigidity that appears to get people revved up. It's racist and fucked up since it targets a virtually 100% brown population consisting of typically the poorest population which is the least able to defend themselves against the authorities. There are instances of genuine Mexican/American citizens getting "deported" because they weren't powerful enough against the zealous bigots! There are so many troublesome and gray areas (hmm, very much like the banking/mortgage shenanigans) with immigration that it's crazy (bigoted) to get all black and white on this issue. You do know that poor Mexicans will never get a work visa to the US right? They can wait decades to get here....

If you truly believe this law is a "clusterfuck", why do you believe these people should be rounded up and deported? At the very least the compassionate amongst us would lobby for a moratorium on deportations while this "clusterfuck" is worked out.

At least this kid will get his "moratorium". Harvard will get him his student visa but if even Harvard recognizes this is a clusterfuck law, and is taking action to protect someone from being unfairly deported (imho as I've already stated. He had no choice in coming here illegally as a FOUR YEAR OLD!), then perhaps it should give pause to even the most rabid baying for (largely) hispanic blood.

The laws are only "enforced" on the poorest, least powerful and most vulnerable as far as I can tell. The richest amongst us routinely skate free. That's why the apprehension and conviction of someone like Bernie Madoff is news. The rest is just man bites dog.

I'm sorry but for me, until the clusterfuck is reformed to be humane, fair, just and transparent, deportations must stop.

Going further, until deportations stop, the clusterfuck will continue. There is no incentive in Congress to change immigration policy. None. A moratorium would get them off their rich asses and perhaps motivate them to reform. Now.

That would be a good thing. I guess what I am against is this idea that "good people" - usually defined as "ivy leaguers" - should be exempt from the same laws the Jose Sixpack has to worry about. Hey, this kid is a smart cookie. Good for him. That shouldn't mean he has more civil lights than the guy washing the dishes in the cafeteria. Know what I mean?

None. While the US gets free access to Mexican labor and resources via NAFTA, 99% of poor Mexican applicants get to sit in squalor and wait for their non-existent visas to someday (never) get approved so they can come up to the US and get some of those "civil rights" (cough* Patriot Act*cough), and offer up their labor here.

I don't agree that this guy is getting more "civil rights" than any other Mexican. This young man isn't being exempted from the law, he's getting caught up in the same damn "clusterfuck" law as Jose Sixpack. My point is ALL of our immigration policies are wrong from the very first time they pick up a pen to fill out an immigration form, to the horrifying moment they are arrested by INS.

The founding fathers did not think about the problems we are facing today.
They did not include in the 14th Amendment anything about illegal parents.
The law states the parents are illegal but the child is not, so the child is a United States citizen under the 14th Amendment, but the parents are not. So therefore the parents should be deported and given the option of bringing the child with them back to Sweden or put the child up for adoption. I think that is very fair and agrees with the laws of the United States.

:thumbsup: