Let’s Make Lawbreaking an Equal Opportunity Pursuit

Amnesty advocates demand that we reward foreigners who break our immigration laws with legal status and citizenship. They claim it is only fair and that it simply brings these allegedly pitiful people “out of the shadows.”

Oh really? So what’s fair about allowing foreigners to break laws and benefit from it when put-upon American citizens can’t do the same thing? If amnesty supporters wish to claim consistency, they must affirm the right to lawlessness as an equal opportunity pursuit.

They can do so by supporting legislation we might term The Lawbreaker Equity Act (LEA). It immediately would go into effect following passage of an amnesty. Thus, if Congress this year decides to grant amnesty to 11 million illegal aliens, then the same number of citizens below a specified income level would have authorization to receive lawbreaker status. Selection would be on the basis of the first 11 million to send in an application.

Citizens certified as legal lawbreakers would then be issued lawbreaker stickers which they could attach to their income tax forms before returning them to the IRS. This would enable them to disobey tax laws and pay no income taxes under a designated dollar amount. That total would equal the financial gain – as determined by the Congressional Budget Office – that an average illegal alien would accrue in wages and welfare for the rest of his life as the consequence of receiving amnesty.

Surely this is simple justice, allowing citizen and alien alike to profit equally from lawbreaking. It would bring millions of deserving citizens out of the shadows of debt and financial hardship and enable them to provide a better life for their children.

Some might object that we would have to find some way to make up the taxes lost. But these could be paid by the billionaires and other wealthy people who advocate amnesty, particularly those who have reaped huge profits from exploiting the cheap labor of illegal aliens. Surely these people, who often boast of their compassion, wouldn’t object to giving back just a little from their monumental gains.

Now it may be that some pro-amnesty politicians will not take this proposal seriously. But on what grounds of fairness can they object to it? If they refuse to endorse LEA, Americans should ask them to explain: “Why should we citizens be second-class, behind foreigners, when it comes to breaking laws?”

Hearing their replies would be priceless.