Michael Hiltzik sums things up with admirable clarity:
laws can be cynical or short-sighted, and one test of their utility is the range of stakeholders complicit in their violation. In the case of our immigration laws today, the entire nation is winking at the laws, not just the immigrants, and don't kid yourself. We employ them at our homes and to build our homes. We rely on their acceptance of low wages to help our agricultural sector remain competitive with farmers abroad--including in Mexico.
Good points, all. Illegal immigration is illegal -- there's no doubt about that. But we as a society can decide that the law was wrong and, since we've all been tacitly benefitting from it, punishing our accomplices but not ourselves is deeply, fundamentally, unfair.
