Hallelujah!

For too long all we’ve heard is the shrill extremism of people who think all illegals should be deported, and broad overstatements of people who believe all illegals should be granted amnesty.

Clearly, a more reasonable approach would be to legalize their existence in our country through work permits or other documents without automatically granting them citizenship.

One of the confusing elements of this debate is the word “illegal”. Opponents of immigration are fond of saying, “what part of illegal didn’t you understand?”

But exactly what does it mean?

Driving your car too fast is illegal, as is stealing a car. But they’re certainly not the same act. So is the term illegal immigrant, closer to speeding or more like stealing?

Our criminal justice system deals with a wide array of offenses ranging from parking violations to murder. In order to have a rational debate about illegal immigration, we need to figure out where “illegal entry” should fit in the panoply of punishable acts.

Surely, someone who crosses a border illegally, with the intent of finding a job and working 10 to 12 hours a day for minimal pay in order to feed his family, doesn’t have the same psychological profile (or present the same threat to society) as someone who wants to break into your house while you’re sleeping and steal your TV.

But we treat illegal immigrants as if each individual poses an imminent threat to the general populous. They can be incarcerated indefinitely (sometimes years) for doing nothing more than crossing the border. They’re deported at will no matter how long they’ve been here. They’re reduced to a second-class limbo in which they’re afraid to call the police, afraid to go to the hospital, afraid to complain to their bosses and afraid to cooperate in official investigations.

It’s illegal to make structural changes to your house without a permit. But if you do the work and the city finds out about it 10 years later, would it be reasonable for agents to show up and say, “what part of illegal didn’t you understand?” and then rip out the changes?

Clearly, we have to reach some conclusions about a statute of limitations for illegal immigrants. Even the IRS generally can go back only seven years to catch tax cheats. Are we saying that illegal immigration is worse than tax evasion?

I commend Ridge for taking a reasonable and moderate view on this issue. There are millions of illegal immigrants in the United States and they’re not going anywhere. Massive deportation and/or massive amnesty plans are never going to pass. We need solutions that will put illegal immigration into its proper place as compared to other crimes, and we need to deal fairly with people who have been living and working in our communities for years.

Former Denver Bronco Reggie Rivers (regrivers@msn.com) is the host of Drawing the Line 8pm Wednesdays. This column is reprinted courtesy of The Denver Post.
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