ABSTRACT
The amnesty programme of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) was widely praised as a watershed in American immigration policy that emblematized America’s exceptional commitment to democracy, freedom, and
equality. The etymology of amnesty points to the freedom it grants by altering seeing, looking, and remembering; the noun refers to a:
‘pardon of past offenses,’ 1570s, from Fr. amnestie ‘intentional overlooking,’ from L. amnestia, from Gk. amnestia forgetfulness (of wrong); an amnesty, from a-, privative prefix, not + mnestis ‘remembrance,’ related to mnaomai ‘I remember’ (see mind (n.)). As a verb, from 1809. (Harper 2001-2010)
In common English usage, amnesty describes legislative or executive acts that restore innocence to persons who have committed an offense: amnesty overlooks an offense, obliterating all legal remembrance of it and thereby extending freedom to the offender. IRCA immigrant amnesty poignantly connoted liberty, for recipients were freed from the dangers, vulnerabilities, and stigma of illegality as amnesty overlooked the transgression of undocumented entry and residency. In keeping with the American tradition of turning to the law to resolve social issues, amnesty was thus a promise of the freedom and civil rights that the self-proclaimed ‘nation of immigrants’—that is, the nation intentionally and proudly comprised of people from various nations, cultures, religions, races, and creeds-conferred to all citizens, and in the 1980s that promise of freedom for a diverse populace was especially compelling.
