“So if Newt believes that America must be a nation of laws, he must be for enforcing the laws for the following illegal actions, correct?”
Obviously to implement his plan, Newt would have to get it through congress and make it law, at which point what he would be implementing and enforcing would be the nation’s laws, thus making his statement that “America must be a nation of laws” coherent.
Laws are not cast in concrete, they change all the time. Homosexuality used to be illegal, then it became legal and protected. The IRS is constantly bending its rules forgiving people that haven’t filed, by negotiating with them. Similarly cities forgive big chunks of traffic fines to collect some instead of nothing, and there are many other examples.
The real lawbreakers in the illegal immigration mess are our own authorities who failed (in many cases intentionally) to enforce the laws that were passed, and all the mayors and council members who created sanctuary cities. If we’re going to hold people responsible and arresting them, I would start with them. After all the real blame for our illegals problem is ours not the immigrants. Who among us wouldn’t do what the illegals did under the same circumstances?
Being a purist, although intellectually satisfying, may not always be the best practical solution.
I actually find Newts solution quite reasonable. I like the fact that whoever gets to stay would never be able to become an american citizen and vote or have the ability to bring over relatives. I think that’s a good compromise.
The only thing that’s very fuzzy is how to determine who gets to stay - having arbitrary cutoff dates like 25 years is very problematic. How do you morally justify kicking somebody out that’s been here 24 and a half years. This is the part of his plan that can be easily gamed and demagogued. This is the achille’s heel - although everyone generally understand what he’s trying to get at, getting consensus at codifying it is going to be next to impossible.
But I wouldn’t want to do any of this until we have full control of the border. We cannot be fooled again, the way Reagan was with his amnesty, when none of the enforcement laws were implemented.