Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants Is Still a Bad Idea

Leaders in the House of Representatives are reportedly about to release “principles” for immigration. If these proposals include amnesty, they will be a step in the wrong direction.

Among other things, their proposals reportedly would include legal status for some of the 11 million [to 40 million] or so people in the United States unlawfully...

An amnesty that grants legal status to only some unlawful immigrants is still an amnesty, just a smaller one. An amnesty of any size is unfair, costly, and won’t work. It is unfair to those who played by the rules and entered lawfully, as well as the millions of people currently waiting in our immigration system to be admitted legally. It is costly because even a small amnesty qualifies millions of people for overburdened government welfare and entitlement programs. It won’t work because another amnesty will signal a pattern, since lawmakers already granted amnesty in 1986. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office analyzed the Senate comprehensive bill (S. 744), which proponents claim has very strict border and enforcement policies, and concluded the bill would not fix the problem. Millions more unlawful immigrants [illegal aliens] would be in the United States over the next few decades.

To ensure that our nation does not have to confront the problem of millions of people in our midst unlawfully again, it makes more sense to reform the legal immigration system, enhance border security, and concentrate on workplace enforcement...

The American people do not trust government to fix the problem while granting amnesty for good reason. Passage of the 1986 amnesty was predicated on it being a one-time event. Promises of workplace enforcement and border security were not adequately kept: we now have some 11 million [to 40 million] unlawful immigrants [illegal aliens] in the United States...

The same poll that indicated immigration was not the top priority found that the number one priority for the most Americans was dissatisfaction with government. Pushing an unpopular amnesty bill will splinter conservatives and be bad policy to boot...