{"id":851,"date":"2013-05-23T10:07:22","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T14:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=851"},"modified":"2013-05-28T22:01:07","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T02:01:07","slug":"amnesty-debunked-a-response-to-michael-medved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/05\/amnesty-debunked-a-response-to-michael-medved.html","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty Debunked: A Response to Michael Medved"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the May 21st<\/sup> edition of Investor\u2019s Business Daily\u00a0<\/i>self-avowed “conservative” talk radio host Michael Medved\u00a0writes that \u201cit\u2019s a healthy development if people toiling<\/i> in this country want to become full participants in our national life and express their willingness to go through considerable effort and expense to legalize their status as Americans\u201d (emphasis mine).<\/p>\n

Immediately, there are a couple of things to note here.<\/p>\n

First, of all of the millions of illegal aliens for whom Medved wants amnesty, some indeed spend much of their time \u201ctoiling.\u201d\u00a0 Many others, however, do not.\u00a0 In fact, many illegal immigrants receive all manner of welfare and social services courtesy of the American taxpayer.<\/p>\n

Second, saying <\/i>that illegal immigrants will have to do this or that in order to achieve legal status doesn\u2019t make it so.\u00a0 Resistance to amnesty stems precisely from the fact that there persists pervasive distrust of the government\u2019s word on pretty much everything.\u00a0 This is particularly the case among conservative-minded voters.\u00a0 After all, this is why they are conservative.<\/p>\n

More specifically, though, many opponents of amnesty have heard this tune before, some 27 years ago, when the country\u2019s then 3 million \u201ctoiling\u201d illegal immigrants were supplied with \u201ca pathway to citizenship.\u201d\u00a0 The amnesty of 1986 only exacerbated the immigration issue.\u00a0 The amnesty of 2013, opponents know, promises to do the same.<\/p>\n

Next, through a disingenuous act of sheer sophistry, Medved contends that opposition to amnesty is one and the same as opposition to all legal <\/i>immigration.\u00a0 Obliterating the distinction between the lawful and the lawless, he states: \u201cNo one who truly supports legal immigration would stand in the way of millions who seek nothing more than to become legal immigrants\u201d by paying penalties, \u201cavoiding\u201d welfare benefits, enduring background checks, and satisfying a number of other conditions contained in the Gang of Eight\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n

With all due respect to the author, this argument is silly to the point of being offensive. It is akin to the argument that no one who truly supports traditional marriage would stand in the way of millions of homosexuals who seek nothing more than to become married, or no one who truly supports medicine would stand in the way of millions who want the right to self-medicate with heroin and cocaine.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, on Medved\u2019s own terms, that illegal immigrants will supposedly have to satisfy a variety of conditions in order to become legal is logically irrelevant.\u00a0 If one \u201cwho truly supports legal immigration\u201d has no option but to endorse amnesty, then it shouldn\u2019t matter whether this \u201cpathway to citizenship\u201d consists of a thousand qualifications or none at all.\u00a0 According to Medved\u2019s logic, all that matters is that there exists a \u201cpathway to citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medved admits that \u201cthe biggest challenge to implementing\u201d amnesty is \u201csorting through\u201d the millions and millions of \u201chuman beings to distinguish those who deserve to stay from those who ought to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reread this slowly and then reread it again.\u00a0 For decades the federal government has been either unwilling or unable to adhere to its complex of immigration laws.\u00a0 This amnesty bill takes a relatively complex set of laws and renders it vastly more complex.\u00a0 So, the government either won\u2019t or can\u2019t do its job when its yoke is lighter.\u00a0 When, however, it is more burdensome, then\u2014then<\/i>!\u2014it will act efficiently and dutifully.<\/p>\n

This is preposterous.<\/p>\n

No less preposterous is Medved\u2019s claim that \u201cstubborn opposition to a path to legal status ruins the best argument that conservatives could otherwise employ in efforts to win support from Latino, Asian, and African-American voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pace Medved, amnesty is not a priority for voters of any racial background.\u00a0 <\/i>And it is most certainly not a priority for black voters! If anything, poll after poll shows that the majority of the country, irrespective of race or ethnicity, rejects <\/i>Medved\u2019s and Rubio\u2019s \u201cpathway to citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even if the members of these non-white groups did want amnesty, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to think that by granting it Republicans would win them over.\u00a0 And there is every reason\u2014namely, voting patterns from the years immediately preceding the amnesty of \u201986 to the present\u2014for judging the amnesty of 2013 to be the death knell of GOP dominance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the May 21st edition of Investor\u2019s Business Daily\u00a0self-avowed “conservative” talk radio host Michael Medved\u00a0writes that \u201cit\u2019s a healthy development if people toiling in this country want to become full participants in our national life and express their willingness to go through considerable effort and expense to legalize their status as Americans\u201d (emphasis mine). Immediately,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAmnesty Debunked: A Response to Michael Medved<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/05\/amnesty-debunked-a-response-to-michael-medved.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amnesty Debunked: A Response to Michael Medved\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the May 21st edition of Investor\u2019s Business Daily\u00a0self-avowed “conservative” talk radio host Michael Medved\u00a0writes that \u201cit\u2019s a healthy development if people toiling in this country want to become full participants in our national life and express their willingness to go through considerable effort and expense to legalize their status as Americans\u201d (emphasis mine). 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