Open border boosters constantly use family unity as a pretext for not deporting illegal aliens. It's a bogus argument. If Mexican families want to stay together, they ought to just stay in Mexico. Plus, some of the "family values" displayed by some Mexican illegal aliens just make things worse.

There's an article by Barcelona-born Claudia Torrens, distributed by Associated Press en español, which reports a case in which a child custody case wound up being decided in New York City . (NY: Padre Sufre Decisión de Juez de Devolver Hija a México).

The Mexican family in the case is composed of the dad Jose Luis Rivera Castillo, the mom Angelica Mota, and the 5-year old daughter Elena Michelle Asuncion Rivera.

That's how the names are reported, though they don't add up. According to Spanish-language surname customs the girl's name should be Elena Michelle Rivera Mota. So there's something awry from the very beginning, but then, we're not dealing with a model family here.

Anyway, Jose and Angelica were married in 2006 in Mexico, their daughter Elena being born in September of that year. After her birth, Jose entered the U.S. illegally and made his way to New York City, where he works as a maintenance man in a private school.

From birth to 3 years, Elena lived with her mother in Puebla, Mexico. (Many of the Mexicans in New York City are from Puebla).

In 2010, it was decided that Angelica and Elena should move to New York City to be with dad. So mother and daughter went to the border, but they didn't cross together. Angelica paid two other women to take her daughter across the border. That strategy was successful, and Elena was taken all the way to New York City and was united with her father.

The Mother Angelica, meanwhile, was not able to cross the border, and was in fact arrested for use of false documents and sent back to Mexico.

At some point in time, Jose, in New York City, acquired a new live-in girlfriend, with whom he had a new daughter. So his new household consisted of himself, the girlfriend, their daughter, and his daughter Elena. Plus, he stopped sending remittances back to Angelica in Mexico.

Angelica sued in the U.S. legal system to get her daughter back, under the terms of the Hague Convention. On January 10th, 2012, Judge Jack Weinstein, in a federal court in Brooklyn, ruled in favor of the mother, on the basis of Mexican child custody law. So Elena is now to be sent back to Mexico.

This, then, is the sort of situation encouraged by our current dysfunctional immigration system. As far as the judge's ruling being based on Mexican child custody law, maybe that's not so bad. After all, the whole family in question is Mexican.

And if the dad, who is complaining about the decision, really loves his daughter, why doesn't he go with her to Mexico? Of course, he also has to figure out what to do with his new daughter and live-in girlfriend!

Are these the Hispanic family values we're constantly lectured about?