What are your thoughts on conditional amnesty for illegal immigrants already residing in the US?

Question

For example- could you support amnesty granted contingent on:

1. Structured payment of back taxes

2. Enrollment in citizenship classes culminating in successful completion of the written citizenship exam

3. Agreement to attend a predetermined course of English-language training

Do you think both sides of the immigration issue could meet approximately in the middle, or would they stick to their respective hard lines?

CONDITIONAL, Dave, CONDITIONAL.

Answer 1

That could work IF AND ONLY IF those that failed to meet those requirements were denied citizenship and current immigration laws are enforced aggressively to prevent us ending up right back here in another 10 years.

Answer 2

I'd have to condition it on solving the problem going forward. That would mean no benefits like education or health care (except emergency health care prior to deportation) for NEW illegal aliens and actually requiring proof of status in schools and hospitals, etc., then enforcing the law. If citizens could bring suit against the government to enforce the immigration laws (since citizens are the ones whose schools and hospitals are being ruined and who live in the areas where crime is rising) that might work, in combination with the above. And we DO need the fence, although I couldn't say exactly how many feet of it is the perfect number.

And then we'd have to do huge sweeps to get out gang members and the twice illegal, because no matter what some choose to say, the rise in criminal activity is in large part a result of illegal immigration. Our LEGAL immigrants are more law abiding than our native citizens, as a group, probably due to the screening they have to go through. Our ILLEGAL immigrants make up about 4 or 5% of the population and about 30% of the prison population nationwide.

Also, we would have to create a special legalization status that is NOT permitted to bring in family under preference (they could still immigrate legally as if they had no family here.) Our schools are failing with the number already illegally here. We can't let that be multiplied logarithmically to bring in more family who bring in more family, etc.

We can't just declare amnesty without fixing the problem. That draws even more.

Answer 3

I wonder what that would solve=other than allowing people to pay off any crime.

My thoughts since that is the Question--- are:
We don't reward any bad behavior--that is wrong.
We start looking at how to help others without hurting our own citizens.
Any Aid given out should be accounted for---all of it and dealt with in an honest fashion. This helps all.
Accountability from our own government on all things. ---many problems would not surface if this was done.
So I say no to those proposals given a choice and yes to we can do much better if we try------------more fair and honest. The illegals must face some of the consequences of their actions -which were in the wrong. I am not saying knock them all down but no simple tap on the wrist neither. Paying back what is fair is no punishment. Learning to get along in a new country is only common courtesy. We can do better much better for this middle ground this post asks. I don't think we will though-too many are happy with a temporary band aids and not fighting the real cause of things.

Answer 4

Your thoughts have merit, I just don't have any faith that the government, under Democrat or Republican control, will do the right thing.
That, and administering the proposal you listed would be a Hreculean effort. The time to deal with this was when the flood was still a trickle. My grandpa always said the best time to shut the barn door was BEFORE the mule got out. A little corny I know, but true none the less. We got us a big problem with this issue, and I don't know what is gonna solve it. I live in Texas, and being a border state, let me tell you, I don't see any way to correct it. I really believe it would take every cop, ICE / INS agent, Deputy, dog catcher, and trashman in the State to begin to address the issues you propose.

Answer 5

First of all I must state that rewarding people that have broken our laws just by being here,is wrong.Its totally unfair to the millions of legal immigrants that struggled thru the legal immigration process.And since the people like me, that disapprove of any amnesty given to illegal aliens for any reason,I wonder why we have to come halfway.Why not since they are wrong to start with (they are illegal)demand more of them.They committed the crime I didn't.One of the points /requirements that I feel should be included is that they cant sponsor anyone else to come here .Not anyone.! That to me is worth its weight in gold.We do not need 10/12 million illegals granted amnesty and then they bring in 20/30 million more people.I will never see the reasoning in allowing our immigration process to be circumvented and I also do not understand why we have allowed this problem to become this large.I as an anti might be willing to go 80/20 with this, but not 50/50.We are not the criminals here they are.Why do I have to compromise as much as they do.?
They difference in our "hard " lines is that the anti views are backed with facts and truths and the pros depend on fabrication,fear and emotion to push their views.No I would not be willing to go 50/50 That's not realistic to me.They must compromise far more than I am willing to do.As I said 80/20 maybe but not 50/50.That's very unfair to legal law abiding American citizens and the people legally awaiting permission to enter the USA.But again the best policy would be NO AMNESTY at all,seal our borders with our active duty military and systematic deportation of all illegal aliens.
March for America In June
http://www.lframerica.com/march2.html

Answer 6

First: Amnesty WITHOUT citizenship, only.

Second: Not unless the 14th Amendment is interpreted as its authors intended:

"This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States..." Jacob M. Howard, author of the 'Citizenship Clause' of the 14th Amendment

No more anchor babies. It was getting ridiculous 30 years ago.

I agree we need immigrants. But every scintilla of fact debunks any insinuation that we're so desperate as to need illegals. Legals work harder, longer, for less, get educated, rarely get pregnant at age 11, and are usually perfectly willing to learn English.

Answer 7

NO, no more amnesty, it is Proven that amnesty does NOT work. It only creates MORE problems and MORE illegals. If we hand out amnesty AGAIN, then 10,15 or 20 years from now we will have 40 million illegals. We have to draw the line somewhere and I say NOW is the time to draw the line.

Answer 8

There is no need for Amnesty now as we already had one in 1986 and that fixed everything. Now there should be no illegal alien problem.

We could solve murder too by allowing amnesty. If you confess your crime and agree to not do it again you can be absolved of liability for murder. Once we do that, no one will ever murder again. Yeahhhhh!

By the way, my family came to America as well. My parents and grandparents had to wait back in Ireland until they could prove that they had a job waiting for them that did not take away anyone else's job. They had to prove financial support in case they needed to be deported or ran into health problems. Until that happened they had to wait for years. the same is true of my cousins who came here just ten years ago.

For years before obtaining an American passport, every time they traveled back to Ireland they risked being held in custody or deported for a missing visa or stamp on their passport.

I would jump and cry racism and demand someone ELSE do something but since they are White-Caucasians I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

Apparently they should have just snuck over, worked for years, and waited for the next amnesty to make all their sins go away.

Answer 9

My thoughts on conditional amnesty to illegals are:
1. Amnesty to millions and millions of illegals is a mistake because we the American people are not going to benefit from this, in the contrary is going to hurt us. Like over-crowinding of our school, over crowding of government benefits, etc. We don't need more poor people that the American system have to support, we already have ours.,let's start taking care of our own, and let the Mexicans take care of theirs. Right now the American corporations are outsourcing our jobs to foreign countries, our workers are out of jobs, why we don't take care of this people first, why do you worry about the ilegals, what about our owns..
2. This is not a matter of paying taxes, is a matter that is illegal and we don't need them. Do we give amesty to criminals just because they pay taxes or send them to jail. When our economy need workers then we could send for them legally and temporary.
3.Our borders are not secure and they will not be secure so that means than in the years ahead we are going to have the same problems and then what. History is repeating it self.
4. With illegals the only that benefit from it is the Mexican economy and the big corporations, so why do we the American people have to permit this, what are we getting out of the deal?
5.We are talking about 12+millions of illegals, mayby more,,, what are we going to do with all of these people when they become legals and start applying for all of the government benefits, like food stamps, housing, welfare, medicare, etc. How could you be sure that they are going to keep on working, and when they bring the rest of their families and then what? Who's is going to pay for all of this???
So you see is not that easy, it is not as simple as you and the rest of liberals see it,,, is more complicated than that. There a lots of questions that are not being answer before you or the Government start talking about amnesty. We have already seen what happend when the USA government gave amnesty to the 3 millions of illegals 20 years ago. Now is 12+ millions or more and then what??? Wake up America, if we the American citizens don't have a job, no matter how strong the economy is, the family don't eat.

Answer 10

I think the only fair amnesty would be a 30 day amnesty in which they could leave the US before being charged as felons. After that time they would be looking at 5 years of hard labor and then deportation.

If someone breaks into your house, what difference does it make if they wash the dishes and make the beds before you discover them? The crime has already been committed.

They seem to have no problem sneaking in, one would imagine they would be equally adept at sneaking out.