I'll be honest, I had never heard of Samuel Sey before this past weekend, when his name suddenly was all over my X feed. A little bit of digging uncovered that he's a Christian/conservative commentator who writes a blog called Slow to Write, where he offers his take on things like theology, abortion, race, politics, immigration, and culture.
Sey, who was born in Ghana and later immigrated to Canada, describes his approach as addressing “racial, cultural, and political issues with biblical theology.”
The reason X was all abuzz about Sey is because he is now in ICE custody for being unlawfully present in the United States. He apparently came here in 2022, moved to Ohio, got married, and began a family with his wife, Annie. DHS officials say he came here legally, but has since overstayed his authorized period of admission by roughly four years.
Despite DHS also saying there are no pending immigration applications for Sey and that he has now accepted a voluntary departure, many of his friends on the right are claiming it was simply a paperwork error and arguing Sey should be allowed to remain in the U.S. In addition, argued some of them, he's a nice guy, and we should be keeping the nice guys here – even if they are here illegally.
Wait, what?
When, exactly, did the conservative movement stop being about principles and degrade into a puddle of feelings? We already have one side of the political spectrum doing that; we certainly don't need two.
The test of a principle is whether you can adhere to it even when it adversely affects someone you like. Otherwise, what's the point of having principles in the first place?
If you've spent the last 18 months applauding ICE's efforts to rid our communities of illegal aliens but now think it's okay to bend the rules for your friends, guess what? You're not a conservative.
It was all brought home to me in a tweet from someone I don't know who maintained her conservative creds while arguing that "genuinely sweet people" deserve a chance to better themselves. In Samuel Sey's case, she seems to be arguing that means letting him stay here as an illegal and rewarding him with citizenship ... because he's a nice guy.
¡Ay, caramba!
I wasn't having it, and responded with the story of my friend, who is married to an Italian citizen. They currently live on two different continents while they work with an immigration attorney to get her a green card. She comes to the U.S. once a year to see him, and he goes to Italy for special occasions. They haven't really ever lived as man and wife, but know they need to do this the right way, or they wouldn't be able to live with themselves.
Absolutely not. My good friend, an American, is married to an Italian citizen. She lives in Italy and visits him here once a year while she works through the process of getting a green card. It's not easy on them at all, but they're doing it the right and legal way. And, no, they haven't started a GFM to defray the legal costs of having to hire an immigration attorney. They're footing the bill because they do not see themselves as victims. Please do not call yourself a conservative if you think your friends deserve to be an exception to American law. Just ridiculous.
— Teri Christoph (@TeriChristoph) October 26, 2026
Absolutely not.
My good friend, an American, is married to an Italian citizen. She lives in Italy and visits him here once a year while she works through the process of getting a green card. It's not easy on them at all, but they're doing it the right and legal way.
And, no, they haven't started a GFM to defray the legal costs of having to hire an immigration attorney. They're footing the bill because they do not see themselves as victims.
Please do not call yourself a conservative if you think your friends deserve to be an exception to American law. Just ridiculous.
Something about my tweet has gotten the X algorithm's attention. I'm usually tweeting into the void these days, but have gotten quite a few likes and retweets on this one. Which I take to mean that any so-called conservative who argues that the nice guys should be able to stay illegally is in serious danger of being kicked out of the conservative movement.
Compassion is not the problem here, but turning that compassion into an argument for selective immigration enforcement most definitely is. If Samuel Sey's case is hard because he's one of ours, then that's precisely why conservatives need to get it right.
