During my time away these last few months, I noticed a Law & Order: SVU episode that got me to wonder how important or unimportant the rights of immigrants are in the United States.

In a paper addressing the rights of immigrants, the ACLU references a ruling by the Supreme Court that honors guarantees by the Constitution for every person within U.S. borders including those who are in the country illegally. Therefore, people who are in the U.S. and are undocumented have the right to the same freedoms as the country’s actual citizens. These rights include the right to be treated fairly. With that in mind, I considered the disgusting nature of this one particuilar Law & Order: SVU episode to be something that many U.S. citizens should carefully weigh when it comes to what is right and what is wrong.

This episode included a trial where one police officer was accused of being involved in a double rape and murder of one teenage girl about one decade prior to the trial. The second teenage girl (who was now a young adult) testified against the cop who raped and murdered her friend, she mentioned that he raped her as well. His defense attorney then called her legal status in the U.S. into question by asking her how long was she a citizen of this country. By the witness's reaction, it became easy to conclude that she was still not a legal citizen of the United States.

While her citizenship may be irrelevant to the case, this dirty cop's defense attorney still brought it up. It seemed as if there was a point to make that she could be lying in exchange for a U.S. citizenship, claimed by the defense to be offered to her by the prosecutor. Instead of discussing this episode further, I'll get to the point that is veyr disturbing. The cop not only won the case, but he got to remain part of the police force and the legal system. Even though Law & Order: SVu is a fictional television show, this scenario is all too real. It depicts just how police officers and other officers in the legal system can go ahead and committ the very crimes that they are paid to uphold and are nor held accountable for them.

It is also disgusting that the cop on this episode had a grin on his face the whole time, as if he did not care about raping this female witness. In one way, his defense attorney bringing up her legal "status" makes this a very uneasy realization of how many people view immigrants in the U.S. which is not too important. It is like implying that rapists have an easy pass if they are violating someone who is not a citizen of this country. Do immigrant women not have rights? Should we care or not care about what happens to someone based on his or her legal status? At the end of the trial in the Law & Order: SVU episode, the girl who was raped as a teenager was deported immediately after the trial.

Where is her justice? A cop rapes a woman and still gets to keep his job and doesn't even have to go to prison while this young woman gets kicked out of a country that she has lived and worked in for years, after her friend was raped and murdered without even getting a chance to go through the process of becoming a citizen. That is veyr disturbing. So, it seems that when it is mentioned that Americans take many things for granted and should not complain so much, there can be some truth to that in many circumstances such as this one. Women who are raped and are citizens can seek out as much justice as they want while females who are non-citizens are questioned more about their legal status than the actual crime committed against them. That is so disturbing and even if there were not any laws to protect immigrants who are in the U.S., what about HUMAN rights?

A teenage girl is a teenage girl no matter if she is a citizen or not. Rape is a crime and those who committed it should suffer all due conequences for their actions. Letting people get off scott free is like saying that it is ok to violate the human rights of immigrants in this country. That is so terribly wrong, many people who believe it should be ashamed.

I welcome all opinions on this matter.

Should immigrants have the same rights or at least basic human rights in the U.S.?
If someone commits a crime against them, should they be able to take legal action against their offender, even if they are not a legal citizen of the U.S. ?

Leave your comments below.

Photo By Beleto

Technorati Tags: Immigration, Immigration+Laws, U.S.+Immigration+Laws, United+States+Immigration, Dirty+Cops, Police+Crimes, Rape+Investigations, Rape+Trial, Law+Order+SVU, Law+Order+Special+Victims+Unit