What if President Trump were to offer to pardon all the citizens of Mexico who entered illegally, but not include people who overstayed visas or entered illegally from Mexico or elsewhere who are citizens of other countries?
Hear me out...
Pardoning these Mexican citizens illegally resident here does NOT make them legal; it only removes the penalties that resulted from their illegal entry.
If one barrier to motivating these people to leave and reenter legally is the fear of financial and/or time penalties for their original entry, this would remove that barrier. They would be allowed to enter legally without the fear of their past getting in the way, but they would still have to enter legally.
This would now free up Congress to write legislation that does not have to deal with this. Congress can try to pass legislation that fast-tracks the reentry process.
In other words, perhaps they do not have to physically leave and re-enter; maybe Congress can find a way for people without police records and who have steady jobs to stay here while they follow a documentation process to become legal residents. Once that process completes, then the five-year residency clock can begin before they can be considered for naturalization.
Congress would still have to deal with the issue of people with felony records, and people who have stolen identities (like social security numbers). A pardon would only be limited to the single act of illegal entry; these people would not be pardoned for any other crimes that occurred since then, including ID theft or other crimes that might be argued to stem from the illegal entry.
President Trump would have to very delicately explain to the American people why this is NOT amnesty (and therefore not breaking a campaign promise). The pardon would only cancel the penalty for the illegal entry to encourage illegal aliens to begin a legal entry/documentation process.
Also, Trump should tie this pardon to some concession from Democrats and/or Congress, such as funding the wall or tax reform. The President would only sign such a pardon simultaneously with a bill sent to his desk.
Thoughts?
-PJ
Amnesty and good-bye America.