People who come here perfectly legally have to earn their citizenship. But if an ordinary American citizen gets a traffic ticket, the law is not going to just forget about it, no matter what good deeds he does afterwards. Why is it not supposed to be called “amnesty”? Because illegal immigrants must “earn” their citizenship. When a new immigration law is proposed that simply overlooks violations of the old law, that is not supposed to be called “amnesty” - even though the word “amnesty” has the same root as “amnesia.” It is all about forgetting. What is even more remarkable about this special treatment is that you are not supposed to think about it as special treatment. But, in some places, illegal immigrants are treated almost as if they were in a witness protection program. No cities announce that they will provide “sanctuary,” so that American shoplifters, or even jay-walkers, will be protected from the law. No one bothers to come up with euphemisms to keep from calling what he did illegal. On the other hand, if an ordinary American citizen breaks a law, no one cares if he has to live in fear for years - “in the shadows,” as it were - worrying that his illegal act will be discovered and punished. The Associated Press refuses to let their reporters refer to people who sneaked across the border into this country, in violation of American immigration laws, as “illegal immigrants.” Merely using the word “illegal” to describe their breaking the law is considered to be a sign of mean-spiritedness, if not racism. Here the whole focus is on the “plight” of those who have broken the laws, and on what can be done to lift the stigma and ease the pressures they feel, so that they can “come out of the shadows” and “normalize” their lives. More generally, laws are meant to protect the society from the law breakers.īut our immigration laws are different. (by Thomas Sowell, RealClearPolitics) – Most laws are meant to stop people from doing something, and to penalize those who disregard those laws.
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