Opinion : Dr. Q: The missing voice in the immigration debate

How did one of the leading brain surgeons in the United States end up at Johns Hopkins, where his pioneer work in brain tumors has given hope to many with terminal diagnoses?

He “hopped the fence” that divides Mexico and the U.S.

Those are not my words; they are his.

Everyone who cares about the immigration issue should know the name of Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa.

Dr Q., as he is now known, was just a teenager from a poor family, a kid with a very bad mullet, when he realized that living in a truck-less pickup topper for a year while working on a farm was the best economic opportunity available for him at the time.

So, that's what he did.

He got some help. Someone else paid for his education. He did well in community college.

Historically well, in fact. Someone realized that he should have more opportunities. He went to one of the best medical schools in the nation. He became a brain surgeon.

His colleagues at John Hopkins are still surprised when they hear him say “I hopped the fence.” But he did.

He knows he broke the law, and lives with that knowledge; the guilt helps him inspire even more to help others.

"The last thing that I want is for people to think what I have done is justified," he told CBS news a few years ago. "The only thing I can do is try to pay back with every single thing I do."

Yet, said the doctor, he would still hop the fence.

I know a lot of Americans who are glad he did.

I spent the morning reading some stories on the web site, www.drqmd.com.

And I have a question: For those of you who believe that every illegal immigrant should face some kind of sanction, what do you have to say about Dr. Q?

Because of my work in journalism, especially in the past couple years, I know perhaps a bit more about illegal immigrants (I refuse to call them “undocumented workers”) than most.

“People who break the law to come here will keep breaking the law,” said one law enforcement professional. His viewpoint is logical; virtually every experience he has had with illegal immigrants begins with officers responding to a crime. The well-publicized Peony restaurant immigration case began that way.

In some ways, my views on immigration are more severe than those of others. I support what I call the "Fast Track to Mexico." I think those who have come here illegally and break the law again should be deported. But by deported, I don't mean some hearing at some future date. Those illegals who commit violent or serious crimes should go immediately to jail, not subject to release, and should be put in a bus and sent back immediately to where they came from. Yeah, they deserve a hearing where a judge can determine whether a crime took place and whether it's likely that the illegal committed that crime. But law-abiding Americans deserve to see those illegals go home.

But in other ways, my immigration views are more lenient (although some, I am sure would find less flattering words to describe them).

I did support most of what is in the DREAM Act, although of course I would tell Congress, as I have before, that if a law is that good, you don't have to spend countless hours finding an acronym to convince Americans it is a good law.

Does it mean I support the President's move? 

No.

Anyone who thinks that Obama's immigration change is not an election year attempt to win votes (while the President faces an economy that seems uncertain at best) probably also thinks that "reality" TV is real. They probably also believe that President Obama opposes the Keystone Pipeline because of his principals and not the fact than in 2008 TransCanada donated to the Hillary Clinton campaign instead of Obama's. Those people would also probably believe that Obama did not learn, from the descendants of Boss Richard M. Daley's Chicago Machine who gave him his political start, to punish those who donate to your political enemies. 

But for years, I have thought that those who came here illegally and managed to find work and make a living have something to teach the rest of us. And students who grew up knowing that they are living in a country that is not legally theirs, but manage to succeed anyway, also have something to teach the rest of us. 

I hope that their voices can be heard while the rest of us shout our views on immigration.