US citizens: call on Bill Clinton to push to let José Álvarez rejoin his family in the US.

Álvarez lived in the US since age 12, without permission. He committed a nonviolent drug crime in 1995, served time in prison, and was released. Then he spent two decades in the US, gainfully employed.

When people who have been in the US just a few years commit serious crimes, I am favor of deporting them, provided it is done reasonably soon after the crime.

But it is an injustice to deport someone with decades of family ties in the US because of a crime decades in the past. It is an injustice to deport any adult who has lived in the US since childhood.

And most of these nonviolent drug crimes should not be crimes anyway.

Nobody should have six children, but that is a different issue and doesn't affect the conclusions on this one.