The illegal immigration conundrum is not about Tanner. It’s not even about Trump

Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said something Tuesday that has stuck with me.

“I don’t know how I can make you feel comfortable if you’ve committed a crime.”

He said this to the media and to a handful of people who had just dropped off letters from the community asking him to reconsider his request to reinstate a program under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that would allow his deputies to enforce federal immigration laws and policies locally.

How can he make people feel comfortable if they’ve committed a crime, specifically the one of living in the United States illegally?

He can’t.

And he shouldn’t be expected to.

We can talk for hours about Tanner’s intractable demeanor, his disappointing use of partisan rhetoric or his seeming eagerness to meet a controversial president more than halfway on illegal immigration, but at the end of the day, his job is to uphold the law.

And that is what he is doing.

It is illegal to be in this country without authorization from the U.S. government.

And what is happening now for the Beaufort County residents who are fearful of losing everything they know and love is the absolute worst-case scenario of the risk they or their parents or their families took to come here without documentation.

This is not Tanner’s fault.

And, in his own way, I do think he tried to soften the edges as much as he could.

He told the media — and those who had protested the 287(g) task force — that he feels confident this program is necessary and that it won’t result in racial profiling or hurt relations with the Hispanic community, two major concerns. He met with the protesters for two hours after speaking with the media. And he has pledged that his 287(g) deputies, both of whom have solid reputations, will be available for meetings in the community.

Regardless of how you take that — whether you think he’s earned the right to be trusted on this or that he hasn’t done enough to be inclusive of the county he’s paid to protect — this isn’t about him.

This isn’t even about President Trump.

It’s about Trump’s supporters.

This is what they voted for. This is what they want.

And a portion of them — a louder portion — aren’t willing to settle for anything less than total deportation of those who are here illegally.

I find that — in addition to the vile comments and threats directed toward those this latter group believes to be here illegally and toward anyone who dares defend them — greatly disturbing.

The focus right now shouldn’t be on 287(g), nor should it be on the Trump administration’s more openly assertive approach to deportation.

Those horses have left the barn. And no matter how heartfelt or certain the conviction, the argument will always end up at a single dead-end: It is illegal to live here without the proper authorization.

The focus and the effort and the outcry need to be aimed squarely at one action: making the people who are already here permanent residents or citizens.

Who? The cheaters? The line jumpers? The people whose very presence within these borders is criminal?

Yes. Them.

Let the people who have families and businesses and who have shown themselves to be productive members of the community stay.

Seal up the borders in a smart and cost-effective way and let’s do a better job of consistently enforcing immigration laws, but let’s also give the people who were here already a chance to be legitimized.

It is immoral to profit off the backs of illegal immigrants or illegal aliens or undocumented workers — whatever the various factions need me to call them to feel like they’re the right ones — for nearly two decades, to reap the trickle-down and trickle-up benefits of their presence here, whether directly or indirectly but certainly cumulatively, and then kick them to the curb, tearing families apart and letting children suffer, because they shouldn’t have been here in the first place.

We, as individuals, can blame them for taking this risk. We can dismiss their fears. We can place the fault totally on them or on the administrations and lawmakers and industries that let this happen.

We can even try to exempt ourselves because we didn’t hire any workers illegally. We, as individuals, have lived our lives according to the law, and we didn’t do this.

But we, as a country, absolutely did do this.

And now we, as a country, should undo it in an intelligent and humane way.

Or else I don’t know what being an American means anymore.

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 6:11 PM with the headline "The illegal immigration conundrum is not about Tanner. It’s not even about Trump."