If you are a homeless bum, and camp out on my property, I can kick you off immediately, or give you a week to get off the property, or let you live on it permanently.
3 different, distinct reactions. The last two are not equal.
A pardon for the mexicans is letting them stay here permanently (Senate). A middling way is the Bush plan.
It isn't Bush's permission to give. If that Bum is on MY property, he has committed a crime. YOU can't give him a week or any other length of time.
To forgive someone that has broken the law is amnesty. By definition. You can't keep torturing the language this way.