The ancestors of most of the people in this country came here outside 'the law,' which, technically speaking, would make even more than you would ever think, 'illegal,' perhaps even yourself.

The big capitalists, when they needed labor, often made people 'legal' by standards that today would be considered a joke. Check out what had to be done at Ellis Island and other points of entry around, say, 1900.

Next, how much of the northern half of Mexico, now the Western US, was obtained 'legally?'

Next, what about the Cherokee, illegally and inhumanely evicted from their homeland in Tennesee and illegally occupied by European immigrants, legal or otherwise, whose descendants occupy it with 'legal' deeds to this day? Legally speaking, we should evict them all and give it back.

Finally, my 5th GGrandfather had a 'legal' deed to land in Western PA that says 'free white males only' on it, after Indians were driven out, after a 'legal' treaty was violated, and the free Blacks who were there, and there were a few, were forbidden to buy any.

Which give us three points.

1. The whole country's history is tainted with illegality that touches nearly everyone, so get off your high horse,

2. Sometimes, as a famous legal theorist put it and another poster above mentions, 'the law is an ass' and needs to be changed.

3. Immigration is a root an economic problem requiring economic solutions, not administrative ones. If you really want to cut the flow of immigration from Mexico, compel US agribusiness to sell corn to Mexico at its true cost of production, without subsidies, rather than dumping, as it does now, that forces Mexican farmers from their land and into starvation-level existence.

And break you addiction to Dobbs and other talk radio wackos. It addles your brain into irrational one-sidedness and stunts your mental capacity.

We all owe Elvira a debt of gratitude for putting a courageous human face on this problem, to Rev. Coleman and Emma Lozano for standing by her, and to her many supporters by persisting in a just cause.