Immigration

When I was trying to come up with a local issue to do my editorial on, one issue that kept sticking out in newspaper after newspaper was the debate about immigration. In my previous blog post I talked about in Omaha how catholic church officials were fighting with government officials to reconsider the deportation of illegal immigrants. It's not that the officials don't agree with the fact that illegal immigration is wrong, but they're worried that innocent people who are already in our country and being deported for the wrong reasons. Worried parishioners were calling their pastors and church employees because family members were being arrested.
Another situation hit close to my home town. In West Point, Nebraska a 37 year old woman with six children and two grandchildren recently received word that she is facing being deported back to Germany. This woman hasn't even been in Germany since she was three years old. Her father is an American and her mother is now also an American citizen. This woman who faces the charges created a felon and has been in and out or rehab with a drug addiction. Granted, she has had troubles in her past and is a classified as a "criminal" but after 34 years of living the United States, why send her back to a country she's unfamiliar with.
I am totally understanding about not allowing illegal immigrants into our country but when someone has lived her for so long and has made a life here, why take that away when this is all she's known. She doesn't speak the language or know the culture. Even though she has had several opportunities to become a citizen and has put it on the back burner, I would be just as satisfied keeping her in American custody. My argument still stands that sending someone back to a country that is unknown is unethical and degrading.