If an orphaned 17-year-old born out of wedlock to a Scottish father and a French mother on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies arrived in New York City by ship today, would he be deported?
That youth fits the exact description of Alexander Hamilton, one of America's Founding Fathers, an author of the U.S. Constitution, and a man whose picture is on the $10 bill.
The young Hamilton arrived on our shores in 1772 from Christiansted, in St. Croix, at that time a Danish possession in the West Indies.
By today's definition, would this young man, who went on to become one of the greatest Americans in history, be called an "illegal alien?"
Gary Hodge, White Plains