--- title: Americans Do Not Have the Legal High Ground on Immigration description: I’m a judge on the criminal prosecution side of immigration. I don’t do asylum cases. I don’t do deportations. I only know what I see. canonical: https://time.com/5318254/our-mistaken-sense-of-superiority/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-21T10:59:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:38:38.901Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Americans Do Not Have the Legal High Ground on Immigration og:description: Argues federal judge Robert C. Brack og:url: https://time.com/5318254/our-mistaken-sense-of-superiority/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab3781f0139f5f3d/69893381bc6cfc6bc53e642e/immigrants-critics-dont-understand.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1767 og:image:height: 994 og:image:alt: Critics Don't Understand Immigrants og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Do Not Have the Legal High Ground on Immigration twitter:description: Argues federal judge Robert C. Brack twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab3781f0139f5f3d/69893381bc6cfc6bc53e642e/immigrants-critics-dont-understand.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Federal Judge: Why Americans Do Not Have the Legal High Ground on Immigration > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=3c04d430-ab06-482e-b430-6840d5b9caf3&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [Robert C. Brack](https://time.com/author/robert-c-brack/) ## Robert C. Brack Jun 21, 2018 10:59 AM UTC  Illustration by Edel Rodriguez for TIME by [Robert C. Brack](https://time.com/author/robert-c-brack/) ## Robert C. Brack Jun 21, 2018 10:59 AM UTC _Brack is a U.S. District Court judge for the District of New Mexico._ I’m a judge on the criminal prosecution side of immigration. I don’t do asylum cases. I don’t do deportations. Those are the civil side. I only know what I see. In 2003, I was told by officials that only 3% of those who were caught coming into the country without permission were actually prosecuted. Since then, the penalty has gone from no consequence to a civil violation to a criminal violation. For the most part, the defendants in my court are not really criminals. Many of them have worked hard. But they are not well-educated, and certainly they don’t know how quickly the rules can change. So they make bad decisions. And they suffer consequences I just can’t get my head around. Last week, I had a couple of fathers from Guatemala who had come with their sons who were 7 and 12 years old—about the ages of my grandchildren—whom they hadn’t heard from in a couple of months. They didn’t know where their children were. We can’t keep enough Kleenex in the courtroom. Those who attack the immigrant population as being lawbreakers don’t recognize that for years we left these laws unprosecuted, in part because of our insatiable demand for cheap labor. For a long time, we have benefited from their presence. I can’t help but wonder, as we punish these people: Do we really have the moral and legal high ground? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5318254/our-mistaken-sense-of-superiority/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5318254/our-mistaken-sense-of-superiority/"},"headline":"Federal Judge: Why Americans Do Not Have the Legal High Ground on Immigration","datePublished":"2018-06-21T10:59:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:38:38.901Z","description":"I’m a judge on the criminal prosecution side of immigration. I don’t do asylum cases. I don’t do deportations. 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