By enacting a statute of limitations for illegal immigration, Republicans could force passage in the Senate and a signature by the president. There is much more than the resolution of a merely political dilemma at stake.
Yes, a statute of limitations will provide new legitimacy for the GOP among Latinos. Of much greater moral gravity is this: Such a change has the power to unleash the imprisoned economic and social lightning of millions of otherwise law-abiding people.
Common law, based on common sense, provides a pathway to a clean resolution of an otherwise intractable problem. Speaker Boehner: enact a statute of limitations. Such a resolution, as Javert was incapable of finding, is the way out of political suicide.
A statute of limitations will serve America’s national interests, as well as the GOP’s. Not incidentally it will create a humanitarian breakthrough of historic proportions. The statute of limitations meets the Statue of Liberty. That’s not amnesty. That’s the American way.
Ralph Benko is an author and regular columnist for Forbes.com. He serves as senior adviser, economics, for American Principles in Action and was a junior official in the Reagan White House.
Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, arrives for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the investigation of the IRS' targeting of political groups. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify and caused a protest from some committee members when she offered an opening statement and engaged in dialogue with members before invoking the right.
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