'Amnesty' label is a sticking point in immigration policy debate

[pampango]

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/05/24/2028379/amnesty-label-is-a-sticking-point.html

The debate that President Barack Obama reignited in El Paso, Texas, over immigration changes could hinge on which side prevails: those who insist that stiff fines and a 13-year wait to become a citizen don't qualify, or those who denounce any sort of liberalization as "amnesty."

"When you get down to it, they're here illegally, and they get to stay. That's what amnesty is," said Mark Krikorian, executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates more restrictive immigration policies.

The term is so powerful that immigrant advocates go out of their way to avoid it, while hardliners insist that "path to citizenship" and "legalization" are euphemisms. Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the sense that "amnesty" is derogatory has grown in the last five or six years, since the last serious attempt at a comprehensive immigration plan fell apart.

To him, true amnesty would not entail the hurdles proposed by Obama. The 1986 law signed by President Ronald Reagan, for instance, let about 3 million immigrants gain legal status just by registering with the government. "That was amnesty," Papademetriou said. "This is what we call earned legalization or earned regularization. ... This is not just forgiveness."