You’d Break the Law to Save Your Family—So Why Can’t They?
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A THX Reflection on Worth, Hypocrisy, and the Performative Cruelty of the Trump Immigration Tactics
Let’s start with a truth:
You are worthy because you exist.
Not because you obey. Not because you perform. Not because you were born in the right country.
Because. You. Exist.
That truth applies to every human being.
It applies to the immigrant parent crossing a border to save their child from traffickers.
It applies to the asylum-seeker who overstayed a visa while fleeing death.
It applies to the child who doesn’t even understand what a visa is—but now lives in fear because of politics they had no vote in.
The Uncomfortable Parallel
Let’s talk about the laws you are willing to break—and feel justified doing so.
You’ve run a red light to get to the ER.
You’ve sped to reach someone in crisis.
You’ve parked illegally to comfort a loved one.
You’ve stretched the truth on your taxes.
You’ve said you’d use a gun to protect your family—even if it meant taking a life.
You did these things—or would do them—not because you hate the law, but because you love someone more.
That’s the exact mindset of many undocumented immigrants.
They aren’t crossing for convenience.
They aren’t overstaying because they “don’t care.”
They are trying to live.
They are trying to protect.
They are doing what you already believe is morally just:
Breaking a lesser law to uphold a greater love.
So ask yourself:
Is crossing a border to protect your child more immoral than killing an intruder to protect your home?
If you justify taking a life under “stand your ground,”
why can’t you justify crossing a line to save a life?
Which law is more sacred to you—your right to shoot or their right to flee?
Performative Cruelty vs. Real Reform
Let’s be blunt.
What Trump and Tom Homan are doing is not about protecting the country.
It’s about punishing the vulnerable—for votes, for theater, for control.
And it’s not new.
Previous administrations also deported people.
But they did so with:
due process
legal pathways to stay
asylum systems that existed
and the humility to try to fix what was broken
This administration?
Raids without warning
No warrants
No respect for local law enforcement
No care for what children see or feel
No investment in immigration courts
No plan to modernize the system
They have not:
Made it faster or clearer to enter legally
Addressed root causes in sending countries
Offered support to communities who welcome migrants
They are creating deliberate pain to look “tough.”
The goal is not to fix the system.
It’s to make you cheer while others suffer.
That’s not justice.
That’s sadism in a flag pin.
The Theology of Proportionality: A Catholic Mirror
To my Catholic and Christian friends:
You know the principle of proportionality from just war theory:
An act is only morally acceptable if the harm it causes is proportionate to the good it protects.
So tell me:
Is traumatizing a child proportionate to enforcing a civil violation?
Is dragging a mother from her home in the dark—without a warrant—proportionate to overstaying a visa?
Is deporting a father who’s worked here for 12 years, paid taxes, and committed no violence… proportionate to the threat he poses?
If your answer is no—and it should be—then this policy is not just cruel.
It’s immoral.
Catholic social teaching also speaks of:
The dignity of the human person
The preferential option for the poor
The call to welcome the stranger
If you can quote Church teaching to vote against abortion, you must also reckon with this:
You cannot rip apart immigrant families and call yourself pro-life.
Final Question of Conscience:
If Jesus himself walked with a refugee family
fleeing violence, unable to secure legal papers in time,
would you welcome him?
Or would you call ICE?
You Are Not What You’ve Done.
None of us chose the nation, skin, or timeline we were born into.
We are all here. And that alone makes us worthy.
If you’ve broken laws, fudged expenses, sped on the highway—you’re not afraid of being dragged from your house with no due process.
They are.
So let’s stop pretending this is about justice.
This is about cruelty.
And if you support it, you’re part of it.
Let’s Do Better
If this stirred something in you, don’t scroll away.
Share it.
Say something.
Challenge the performance of cruelty with actual courage.
You are worthy.
They are worthy.
We are not our usefulness. We are our humanity.
