Just a few thoughts for Monday morning: <\/p>\n
We need to adjust the terminology around immigration. The left has taken over the narrative here: \u201cimmigration reform\u201d means a legalization program. \u201cAmnesty\u201d has disappered from the reporters\u2019 stylebook, to be replaced by, fairly universally, a \u201cpath to citizenship\u201d for those \u201cwithout papers.\u201d <\/p>\n
Here are the definitions we need to start using consistently: <\/p>\n
\u201cAmnesty\u201d means the government promising not to assess penalties for misdeeds of some kind. A \u201cbook fine\u201d amnesty from the library means, \u201cplease return the books, no questions asked, and we\u2019ll remove the fines from your record.\u201d A parking ticket amnesty means, \u201cplease pay the ticket and we\u2019ll remove the obligation from our records without applying the fines.\u201d An amnesty in the bigger sense of a civil war is generally, \u201clay down your weapons and return to civilian life and we won\u2019t jail you.\u201d <\/p>\n
In no other sense does amnesty mean, \u201ckeep what you\u2019ve acquired illegally,\u201d does it? <\/p>\n
A truer immigration-related amnesty would be to remove the various penalties that attach to illegal entry that prevent individuals from applying for residence, should they later have grounds for an application. Periodically the Tribune features a so-called \u201cmixed status\u201d family divided because dad\u2019s been deported and banned from applying to return, and mom raises the kids alone. An amnesty would remedy their situation. <\/p>\n
An amnesty would have also remedied the situation of the \u201chard case\u201d so-called Dreamers \u2014 the ones who the Trib would occaisonally profile, bright, talented, ready to conquer the world \u2014 and who would have been eligible for a student visa for studying, and could have applied for an H1-B visa afterward. <\/p>\n
What \u201cimmigration reform\u201d advocates are after is a full-scale legalization program, and I\u2019d like to see \u201cour side\u201d call it that consistently. \u201cI support waiving penalties for those whould would now otherwise be eligible to apply for permanent residence, but I don\u2019t support a large-scale legalization program.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cPath to citizenship\u201d? Even for a left-leaning profession, it\u2019s dismaying that journalists have so eagerly seized upon this euphemism, given that the key to these proposals is not the 13 years to citizenship but the fact that legalization happens immediately, and that\u2019s the far more consequential action. <\/p>\n
And \u201cimmigration reform\u201d grates on me too \u2014 why should the Left be able to call their proposals \u201creform\u201d? Could we not call a border-and-internal enforcement \u201creform\u201d? It\u2019s not dissimilar from \u201chealth care reform\u201d now being defined as ObamaCare. <\/p>\n
So, to sum up: I support amnesty, a waiver of fines. I could support a partial deferred legalization program, but not a large-scale immediate legalization. Telling me how long it takes from legalization to full citizenship doesn\u2019t matter a whit. <\/p>\n
And now I\u2019m officially running out of steam on immigration, because to really do it right requires a significantly greater command of facts than I have without doing fairly time-consuming research.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just a few thoughts for Monday morning: We need to adjust the terminology around immigration. The left has taken over the narrative here: \u201cimmigration reform\u201d means a legalization program. \u201cAmnesty\u201d has disappered from the reporters\u2019 stylebook, to be replaced by, fairly universally, a \u201cpath to citizenship\u201d for those \u201cwithout papers.\u201d Here are the definitions we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n