{"id":5740,"date":"2014-01-24T11:07:56","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T16:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=5740"},"modified":"2018-12-28T15:16:21","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T20:16:21","slug":"amnesty-by-any-other-name-smells-as-sweet-to-illegal-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2014\/01\/24\/amnesty-by-any-other-name-smells-as-sweet-to-illegal-aliens\/","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty, by Any Other Name, Smells as Sweet to Illegal Aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rose_photo\"In an open letter to the amnesty movement<\/a>, illegal alien activists say they will accept bills which grant legal status short of citizenship.\u00a0 However, if any sort of legalization happens, these activists promise to \u201ckeep fighting for more\u201d rights.\u00a0 Clearly, citizenship is not off their agenda.\u00a0 It is the agenda of amnesty, and activists are utilizing word games to get it in increments.<\/p>\n

In the letter, the illegal aliens write that they should focus on legislation \u201ceven if it doesn’t include a special path to citizenship.\u201d \u00a0They conclude that the 2013 inaction on immigration legislation resulted partly because Democrats held out for immigration bills that granted citizenship to illegal aliens.\u00a0 However, these illegal aliens clearly want citizenship in the future; the letter says currently they still \u201cwill not accept a proposal that blocks, bans or bars citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Negotiating on a legalization bill is a strategy to capitalize on amnesty word games.\u00a0 \u00a0The pro-amnesty lobby has long been trying to narrowly define \u201camnesty\u201d to lull people into a false sense of security that what is being endorsed is not even associated with the dirty \u201camnesty\u201d word. \u00a0Unfortunately, they already seem to be winning over some House Republican leaders with these word games.\u00a0 Several Members of Congress, including House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy<\/a> (R-Calif.) and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte<\/a> (R-Va.), have adopted this distinction, and thus, contradicted themselves on their amnesty stance.\u00a0 These lawmakers advance supposedly less controversial policies like \u201cfinding the appropriate legal status\u201d and \u201cpath to citizenship\u201d but simultaneously declare they oppose amnesty.<\/p>\n

Granting legal status to illegal aliens is<\/i> amnesty.\u00a0 Granting citizenship to illegal aliens is<\/i> amnesty.\u00a0 Some even say that these proposals are worse<\/i> than amnesty. \u00a0Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach testified<\/a> to Congress that granting any legal status to illegal aliens is \u201camnesty plus.\u201d\u00a0 Amnesty would be doing nothing to punish illegal aliens for violating the law.\u00a0 Actually giving them the thing which they desire (legal status or citizenship) is another measure on top of the non-enforcement of immigration laws.\u00a0 In other words, amnesty would be comparable to not<\/i> prosecuting a thief who steals some property for larceny, but \u201camnesty plus\u201d is then granting that thief the property that he stole.<\/p>\n

While the short-term strategies of the amnesty lobby may be shifting, the endgame is still the same.\u00a0 They want citizenship but have broken the law.\u00a0 Immigrants who go through the naturalization process the legal way do not have such a privilege.\u00a0 It\u2019s unfair to grant illegal aliens such a privilege.\u00a0 No matter whether the proposal is \u201cappropriate legal status\u201d or \u201cpathway to citizenship,\u201d or whether you call it \u201camnesty\u201d or \u201camnesty plus,\u201d it\u2019s still bad immigration policy.<\/p>\n

For more on the amnesty word games, see FAIR\u2019s infographic, Decoding Amnesty Speak<\/a>.