Immigration Advocates Hijack Dr. King's Legacy for Amnesty

This past weekend, several thousand people gathered on the National Mall to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. In the powerful address, Dr. King envisioned a society where the "content" of a man's character meant more than the "color of his skin." Events this weekend, however, prominently featured activists for amnesty for the country's illegal immigrants [illegal aliens]. It is a separate issue that tarnishes Dr. King's legacy...

The civil rights movement was about securing full constitutional rights for existing American citizens. Many parts of the country shamefully restricted the rights of minorities, generally black Americans. Even where the law was written to treat races equally, enforcement was often unevenly applied. King's work, and the broader civil rights movement, was addressing this moral wrong.

The amnesty movement, by contrast, is about securing constitutional rights for people who broke the law to enter the country. Advocates want to frame the debate in the context of civil rights, but it is a false comparison. The push for amnesty isn't about securing rights for immigrants, but about showing favor on people fortunate enough to live within access to a land border with the US and determined enough to ignore the nation's immigration laws...