Only in America

The following is a contribution by outside blogger Gregory Sokoloff. Opinions expressed are solely those of Mr. Sokoloff.

In theory, she should be hunkered down in some dark basement, trembling like an autumn leaf at the sound of every step outside. That’s because she has no legal right of any kind even to walk the streets of this country. In reality, Lucy Allain (pronounced: Aya-in), a 20-year-old Peruvian from New York, wears her law-breaking on her sleeve.

She tells anybody who would listen about her “undocumented” status, as she likes to put it, takes part in street protests, openly makes TV appearances as an illegal alien, and has even decided to get involved in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Last week, the proud daughter of the land of Tupac Amaru rebels and Abimael Guzman, the jailed leader of local Maoist guerrillas, confronted Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney face-to-face, when he made a quick dash to New York from South Carolina to take part in a fundraiser. Ms. Allain ambushed the former Massachusetts governor after the event as he was shaking supporters’ hands and demanded an explanation about his opposition to the Dream Act, a piece of legislation that would provide a pathway to U.S. citizenship to some illegal aliens who entered the United States as children if they joined the military or took a few college classes.

The draft, described by many as an attempt at “backdoor amnesty,” failed in Congress in 2010, and Mr. Romney has promised to veto it if it ever resurfaced. According to media reports, the candidate restated his position, but the conversation apparently ended on a sour note when Ms. Allain told him about her illegal status.

“When he heard that I was illegal, he pulled his hand out as if I were a criminal,” she complained to Univision, the top Spanish-language network. “I felt bad … as if I were trash.” She also felt her rights were violated when somebody from the crowd dared shout that she should go back to her own country. And on Sunday, she was invited to Univision’s program “To the Point,” a Hispanic counterpart of “Meet the Press,” to elaborate on her outrage and tell the Hispanic community how Mr. Romney was not suitable for an America she envisioned.

“If he were elected president, our dream would be broken,” Ms. Allain warned, adding that she needed to confront Mr. Romney “so that he would stop telling lies.”

Pretty bold for an outlaw, who is not pacing a cell of a deportation center just because President Obama has decided that in the run-up to the November election, it would not be prudent to roil up the Hispanic community.

But frankly, this is not about Ms. Allain and her loudmouth buddies. We have seen this before and probably will see it again. It is more about us, our respect for our own sovereignty, laws, national pride, the political process, which, incidentally, is not an internationally-open contest, and for the presidential candidates, one of whom will eventually run this country. Here, essentially, we have a foreigner, who comes to this country, breaks the law, brazenly brags about it, and tries to lecture our politicians on what they should or should not do.

And nobody is outraged. Nobody – much less the feared ICE – moves a finger to put Ms. Allain where she belongs, and the whole event is brushed off by the big media and the punditry as an amusing episode of little relevance.

I beg to differ. It speaks volumes about our self-respect as a nation and the rule of law, a pillar of our liberty and freedom, which does not look as solid as it used to anymore. Just imagine an American sneaking illegally into Ms. Allain’s home country, confronting a local presidential candidate and trying to lecture him or her about what to do while in the presidential palace. I guarantee you a monumental scandal, with complains about infringement on sovereignty rushed to the United Nations, the International Court in The Hague and every other possible institution.

It was not that long ago that Peruvians handled with utmost efficiency the case of an American, who came to their country under the false guise of a journalist and tried to help impose on their society her leftist worldview. In 1996, New Yorker Lori Berenson was convicted by a local court of treason and sentenced to life in prison without parole, and attempts by her lawyers to arrange for her return to the United States have so far been unsuccessful.

I think, as far as defense of sovereignty is concerned, we can learn from Peruvians a thing or two.

Editor’s note: A video recording of Ms. Allain’s confrontation with Gov. Romney and an interview with the Peruvian illegal alien can be viewed on the Website of the illegal alien advocacy group, America’s Voice.