One of the silliest arguments against some of the immigration reform proposals is that any kind of amnesty for existing undocumented workers "rewards them for breaking the law."
For conservatives, this just makes intuitive sense--in the same way, "not negotiating with terrorists" makes sense to, well, everyone. But there's a real difference between lifting a law and negotiating with terrorists: We absolutely can't have people thinking they are going to get much of a reward from terrorism, while having other sorts of laws lifted carries with it no such serious consequence.
I am not suggesting that granting amnesty to all existing undocumented aliens is the right policy. All I'm saying is that the fear that we will somehow encourage lawbreaking is not a valid argument against it.
Furthermore, I would suggest that for folks of a liberal bent who are looking to reduce the growth of the prison-industrial complex by releasing those incarcerated for certain drug crimes, this is a meme worth crushing.
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