Back Of The Line, Part 2

My commentary yesterday was prompted more by the mindlessness of the slogan, “go to the back of the line,” than by the actual issue of the disposition of persons who came to this country in violation of the law. Politicians make up these statements which mean nothing in reality, but people seem to buy them at face value. As with “We are denying them space in which to plan their attacks,” no one seems willing to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

As to “amnesty,” when we apply the Statute of Limitations, which we observe for all but the most heinous crimes, we effectively give the law breaker what he broke the law to get. Perhaps we should deal with illegal entry in the same manner; until the Statute of Limitations has run its course if we catch you we will deport you, after that time limit has expired you are cleared of that violation.

In which case there should be none of this “back of the line” nonsense. Persons who have been cleared in that manner have had their status normalized, and are not subject to further penalty. That is the whole purpose of the statute.

I don’t know what would be a reasonable time limit for that when applied to illegal entry. The waiting time for legal entry is typically on the order of magnitude of eight years, so that might seem to be a reasonable limitation.

This approach might well be to simple for Congress to wrap its collective head around, though.