by the Rev. Tom Schade:

“It is useful to remember that being in the United States without having

gone through the proper immigration procedures is not a crime. It is a civil

offense—like jaywalking—and it is handled outside the criminal justice system.

And that is why deportation rather than a jail sentence is appropriate. The

undocumented person is guilty of nothing. Calling undocumented people “illegal”

is a deliberate obfuscation and inflammatory.

“What to do with an undocumented person who is accused of no crime?

There are many suggested procedures for this and they are the subject of

immigration reform legislation. That legislation is stalled because the

conservatives will let nothing move forward that has any suggestion of

“amnesty” in it.

“Everyone knows that we cannot deport 11 to 12 million people without

igniting civil unrest. We can no more fix our immigration system by

punishing immigrants than we can promote healthy sexual practices by

punishing unmarried mothers or than we can stabilize marriage by

denying it to gays and lesbians.