Baptist leader Richard Land backs citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Somehow, I don’t think the logic of “love your neighbor” was ever intended to go so far as “If you had done something illegal, you’d want to get away with it, so the loving thing to do is let others who violate the law get away with it.” How about if we just enforce the laws we have but then revise them if they are deemed unloving?

[dcbii] No kidding. I can’t believe what some of these guys come up with to justify their views.

“This is a kingdom issue.” Ummm … whose kingdom? Seriously, precisely what is that supposed to mean?

[Aaron Blumer] Somehow, I don’t think the logic of “love your neighbor” was ever intended to go so far as “If you had done something illegal, you’d want to get away with it, so the loving thing to do is let others who violate the law get away with it.” How about if we just enforce the laws we have but then revise them if they are deemed unloving?

I don’t know that’s quite where he was going. It’s common for laws or even punishment for breaking the law to be suspended while the law is reviewed. Seemed to me he was advocating that kind of suspension in the hopes of coming up with a plan that would address the integration of current undocumented immigrants in America and set them on the path to legal citizenship. (Note he did suggest payment of backtaxes and taking civics courses, and while I agree that would be hard to make sure it’s done right, it’s a lot better than just declaring everyone currently inside US borders “citizens.”) The question there is whether or not the current population of undocumented immigrants would go for citizenship - any law would have to make it (relatively) easy to become a citizen and hard to stay undocumented while putting pressure on employers to uphold their end of the enforcement. As it stands now it’s a lot easier to sit back undocumented and anonymous than it is to become a citizen, which is why so many do it - either there’s no incentive or it’s extremely difficult to go the extra step and become a citizen.

Tom… you’re probably right. And I’m not necessarily against the idea of that kind of suspension if actual progress toward the rule of law results. But I do think sometimes “amnesty” gets unfairly slapped on proposals that really are aimed at getting the situation under control. “Round ‘em all up and ship ‘em back home” is not going to fly for many reasons, so something that upholds law yet makes “turning yourself in and going legitimate” appealing at the same time would be ideal. But I often think that talk of what to do about illegals who are here is a distraction from the bigger problem that the borders are not under control. If I were a policy maker, I’d be pushing for stopping the leaks first, then deal with what has already leaked…. and then finally, deal with how open the valves should be.
(In fact, if we actually got the border under control, I’ll bet many who are now passionately against “amnesty” would find themselves much more open to the idea… because what they really fear is that “amnesty” will just result in even more illegal flow in.)