The Empty Promise of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Guest blogger: Joshua Wagner, law graduate, University of San Francisco

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are the words found in the United States Constitution which promises certain ‘unalienable rights’ and are at the very foundation of what it means to be American. Yet for many people living within the United States or under its jurisdiction these words are empty. The truth is, for non-citizens, the rights we hold most dear are not unalienable as it applies to them.

            Undocumented persons living in the United States have less rights than U.S. citizens. For example the doctrine of ‘the fruit of the poisonous tree,’ which throws out evidence obtained by police misconduct does not apply to undocumented respondents in removal proceedings unless such actions meet a high burden of being ‘egregious.’ During the Covid-19 outbreak when many Americans received a stimulus check to help with the financial stress of current events, many Americans were ineligible for such relief simply because they married an immigrant. Likewise, we have long understood the importance of a lawyer in interactions with the legal system and yet in deportation hearings there is no right to counsel for those who cannot afford it.

            There is something wrong with a promise of unalienable rights when it applies only to people born in the arbitrary confines of a country. If we really want to be a nation of freedom, liberty, and unalienable rights, it should apply to everyone, regardless of where they were born. What have non-U.S. citizens done that makes them unworthy of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Even as undocumented people pay taxes and contribute greatly to society, they are denied basic rights that everyone in our country was supposed to be guaranteed.

            Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘A Just Society’ proposal is a good example of the direction we should head if we want to make the words of our constitution more than an empty promise. One of the bills in this package called the “Embrace Act’ would outlaw the denial of federal benefits based on a person’s immigration status. This is a step in the right direction and hopes to ‘pave a path to prosperity for all.’ It is not right to take advantage of the labor and effort of non-citizens and at the same time deny them benefits and rights offered to all U.S. citizens. Yet the demonization of immigrants throughout our history and especially in the last few years all but ensures these groups will continue to be denied these rights. The United States is a nation of immigrants and people come here looking for opportunity. We were the nation of opportunity before when we embraced immigrants, and we should become that nation once again.

            If the promise of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is really as important as we make it out to be, it should apply to everyone, not just the people who happened to be born within the borders of the U.S. Unalienable rights should not have a nationality, it should apply to all equally. We commit a grave injustice when we treat non-citizens as inferior by denying them equal rights. It is time we recognized the dignity of all humans, regardless of their origin or nationality, and extend them the same rights and privileges that we think of as unalienable and at the foundation of what it means to live in a just and equitable society. Until we do that the guarantees of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are nothing but a lie we tell ourselves to sooth our conscience to the injustice we allow to happen everyday in front of our very eyes.

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