Payback’s… a good thing

[Amendment: *sigh* “Post at haste, repent at leisure” could apply. I meant to follow the post title with, “…Payoffs are not,” as the first sentence of this post. Would have made kore sense.]

Note that there is one provision of the Senate Shamnesty Billate that I could easily support, were it presented on its own: a provision offering a citizenship track to certain illegal aliens for service (and honorable discharge on completion of service) in the Armed Forces of the United States. Such persons would, IMO, have offered full restitution for their crimes and amended their faulty immigration status by their service. In fact, you might note I agreed with Jerry Pournelle’s suggestion along those lines earlier:

“…as I have often said, the proper way to deal with illegal immigrants, is (1) close the border, (2) pay a bonus to any who will voluntarily leave — say $4,000 or so, which is significant to them but still a savings to both nation and state; (3) instruct the police that any who come their attention as misfeasors of any serious degree be turned over to the authorities for detention and deportation and make that stick, (4) offer citizenship to any who spend 8 years in the armed services ending in honorable discharge, and (5) wait to see what happens then. I have no idea whether you would call that compassionate. It seems very reasonable to me.” [emphasis added]

As before, I’m not all that happy with rewarding illegal aliens for “catching” themselves and performing a self-deportation. In fact, I’d be happier if a bounty–with protections against abuse–were in place to reward citizens who turned in illegals who were then deported deep into Mexico (if Mexican or if entered from there) or their countries of origin. Heck, I could retire off bounties within a couple of months (not that that significantly affects my position, since it’s a matter of principle, not economic–rewarding outlaws for breaking the law is never a good idea).

In fact, I’m a tad surprised at Pournelle for suggesting that we pay illegals to leave, since he was once fond of quoting:

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