May 24, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

Defining amnesty

The Senate immigration proposal amounts to an amnesty, no matter how it’s spun, Heritage’s Ed Meese writes in today’s New York Times.

• Read Ed Meese’s op-ed on The New York Times website

When addressing today’s pressing problems, it’s always helpful to look to history as a guide. And Meese, who served as President Reagan’s Attorney General and now works as Heritage’s Ronald Reagan Fellow, does just that.

He explains that the current immigration bill looks very much like the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. There was never any dispute about what to call the 1986 bill. “President Reagan called this what it was,” Meese writes. “Amnesty.”

The similarities between the bills are striking, as Meese demonstrates. Both bills allow those who have illegally resided in America for more than five years to gain a “path to citizenship” if they “pay application fees, learn to speak English, understand American civics, pass a medical exam and register for military selective service.”

His conclusion sums up a solidly conservative position on immigration reform:

The fair and sound policy is to give those who are here illegally the opportunity to correct their status by returning to their country of origin and getting in line with everyone else. This, along with serious enforcement and control of the illegal inflow at the border—a combination of incentives and disincentives—will significantly reduce over time our population of illegal immigrants.

This article just goes to show that Heritage continues to lead the immigration debate. One policy expert told The Wall Street Journal that Heritage’s immigration research “has fallen like a stink bomb in the middle of the debate.” And a leading journalist told Heritage that our efforts have done a lot to increase the Senate’s understanding of these issues, particularly the consequences of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

So what are you waiting for? Team up with The Heritage Foundation as we fight for a sound immigration reform that includes no amnesty—by any name. Contribute today!

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

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