Redefining Amnesty Again

18 May, 2007. 313 words.

Words are funny, especially in politics. They rarely mean what Webster intended them to mean. For example, to Republicans, a “timetable” is an un-American, troop-hating, defeatist surrender plan. A “benchmark,” however, is a sensible measure of progress. Just the other day, I saw a new one (to me) in the Republican debate: “Enhanced interrogation techniques,” which I learned was most definitely not “torture.”

Anyway, “amnesty” is another one of those funny words, brought to light again with the recent news that legislators have reached a deal with the White House on immigration reform. To most hard-line Republicans, anything short of kicking down doors, arresting all illegal aliens, trucking them back to Mexico in the dead of night, lining them up against a wall and shooting them in the head is considered “amnesty.” So we should parse this immigration deal carefully to understand what it actually means before we start listening to all the people shouting “amnesty!” in their blog posts. (I realize I’m asking a lot from the average American citizen here.)

I saw on Captain’s Quarters that a fellow named ~~“Big Lizard”~~ Dafydd at Big Lizards has put together a very comprehensive outline of what is known about the compromise so far. Check it out, it’s good.

To me, the “crackdown on employers who hire illegals” is the most important part of stopping the tide of Mexican immigration, so that’s the part I’ll be interested in, and the enforcement thereof. As for stopping terrorists, I don’t quite know what to do about that aside from ending all forms of immigration and sealing America inside a giant shimmering force-field bubble (aka. the Virgil Goode Immigration Plan). And even that wouldn’t stop domestic terrorists.

All that aside, it’s probably worth mentioning that this deal, which is being discussed as if it were set in stone, hasn’t even reached the House or Senate floor yet.

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