Did you not read the post you quoted? That is exactly what I said would make them the same, if the new law required that the person leave and then reapply legally.
Tax amnesty is a travesty, even if all things were equal, the composition of the two groups in question, and their levels of desperation, are on a wide enough differential that the "crimes" they commit are on vastly different levels. Tax evasion is mostly a white-collar upper-class crime that in all honesty, for most people, is just another way to grow the bank. "Illegal" immigration is the only way out for some of the poorest people in the world.
Congress is a mess and a half. What process? If you want to wait for Congress to act on this vital issue, you might as well give up. Glad to see you support the policy, however. Did the free-marketing get you to your senses?
That is a value judgment. I was talking about the structural differences of the laws themselves. One has nothing to do with the other.
It's the value the nation was founded on. Perish the thought of the Native Americans having the same immigration laws some centuries ago.
No, people don't have to first pay all the taxes/penalties and then apply to get the penalties back. So to make it the same, they shouldn't have to leave the country either. They just have to come forward and pay their taxes. So they should just be required to apply and not face the penalty of deportation.
In the tax case, people are allowed to declare the money and then pay the taxes on the money, forgoing penalties, but given no advantage over people that did not have offshore accounts. Under the DREAM act, illegal immigrants would be asked to declare their status, but they would have the advantage over those who were not lawbreakers because they would continue living in the US despite their illegal entry, they would never be subject to the process of immigration. In the first case, the criminal is put into the position they would have been in if they had payed their taxes all along. You are forgoing only punitive action in the form of fines and/or imprisonment. In the second case, the criminal is not put into the position they would have been in, because they would have been outside the country with the same opportunity to apply for entry as all of their countrymen. Your proposal gives them an advantage over those who followed the law, instead of simply allowing them to be brought into conformity, because they are never subjected to the wait to get in nor to the application process. If the tax cheat had declared the money earlier, they would have had to pay the taxes due. When you collect the taxes, that is accomplished. If the immigrant had followed the rules, the existence of an application is not the only difference that would have existed. The tax cheat is not allowed to continue cheating on those back taxes so long as they are in conformity from this point forward.
Well I see your point. But I think it's ridiculous to make someone living here leave the country and everything behind and then reapply like any other immigrant. Yes they broke the law and got away with it. But that's what amnesty sort of means, you get away with breaking a law. Tax payers got away with fraud, and while they pay their back taxes the penalties are huge and the U.S. gov't benefits directly. Illegal immigrants under the Dream act - it actually benefits the U.S. to have them become tax paying citizens. Kicking them out of the country doesn't do anything, the won't come forward so it's just nonsensical to begin with. So technically you are right, but from a realistic standpoint, I think they are pretty much the same.
As an Aussie, I love Australia but I also love America! USA!USA!USA!USA!USA!USA! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!
Ironically, the Republicans built their platform on people believing in the American Dream. You know, the whole "you may not be top-1% but when you do become top-1% you don't want us raising taxes on you, right" BS. Sometimes I wonder if Fox News/Tea Party stuff would work on a country where citizens doesn't blindly believe that they can be anything provided they work hard enough.
