Amnesty for Murder?

Michael Ramirez, 3/29/06

Amnesty is like amnesia. Forgive and forget, right?

I remember first learning the word "amnesty" at the local library. On Amnesty Day, kids could bring in their long-overdue books, and the fines would be forgotten ― forgiveness for minor transgressions. It got the kids off the hook and the books back where they belonged.

That was the conceptual framework supporting the Immigration Reform and Control Act, signed into law in 1986 by Ronald Reagan. But amnesty did not work as intended:

The lesson from the 1986 experience is that such an amnesty did not solve the problem. There was extensive document fraud, and the number of people applying for amnesty far exceeded projections. And there was a failure of political will to enforce new laws against employers. After a brief slowdown, illegal immigration returned to high levels and continued unabated, forming the nucleus of today’s large population of illegal aliens.

The immigration problem is literally out of control now. Innocent people are dying. The southern border is rife with deadly violence and anarchy, as Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona eloquently explains:

In reaction to tough new legislation designed to crack down on the drug crime and human trafficking at the Arizona/Mexico border, supporters of the status quo have physically attacked police:

Just imagine if tea partiers had ever chased down a counter-demonstrator, physically assaulting police as the police escorted the counter-demonstrator away for his own safety.

Now is not the time to talk about amnesty. Now is the time to remember the mistakes of the past and to get tough on the crime at the border.

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