In the debate over immigration, amnesty is an epithet, hurled by one side, dodged at all costs by the other. It is a politically unfeasible option.
Which is why supporters of Senate legislation say they favor an "earned path to citizenship" for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US. Why an advocacy group calls itself the "Essential Worker Immigration Coalition."
And why US President George W. Bush talks about a comprehensive approach to immigration -- details undisclosed -- that moves "beyond tired choices and the harsh attitudes of the past."
Critics who ascribe amnesty to the bill are "trying to find hot buttons to push," pollster Celinda Lake recently told reporters. "I'm surprised some people don't call it gay marriage, too."
More than election-year word play is at stake as US Congress struggles toward the first major overhaul of immigration laws in two decades.
In the Senate, at least, victory probably will belong to any group of 60 lawmakers supporting an approach they comfortably can claim is less than amnesty.
Bush's agreement with their definition, or at least his acquiescence, is essential to their success. That is especially so if a compromise is to emerge from negotiations with the House. Majority Republicans there have passed legislation calling for criminal penalties for people illegally in the US and for a fence along stretches of the US-Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out of the US.
By contrast, legislation before the full Senate begins with steps to strengthen border protection and omits the criminal penalties. It envisions an increase in the flow of future immigrants into the US, in temporary guest worker programs.
Of greatest contention is letting illegal aliens who were in the US before Jan. 7, 2004, seek citizenship without first returning to their home country.
They would be required to pay fines, show they were current on their taxes, learn English and meet other tests, including waiting their turn behind immigrants legally in the US.
Critics say that would forgive years of lawbreaking and encourage future immigrants to come to the US illegally in the hope that they, too, would be forgiven one day.
In 1986, legislation "required illegal aliens to pay a fee, to learn English, to improve themselves by working in this country for a set time," said Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Republican..
"Everyone agrees on two points," he said. "No. 1, they agree it was amnesty. And No. 2, they agree it was a complete and total failure."
A second Southern conservative, Senator Jeff Sessions, said the measure includes four separate amnesty provisions.
"It should be called `no illegal alien left behind,'" said Sessions, whose detailed criticism has been one of the main elements of the first few days of debate.
The highest-decibel clash so far has been among Republicans, at a time when Bush issues near-daily pleas for lawmakers to conduct a dignified debate on an issue of such importance to the fast-growing Hispanic voting population.
In the House, more than a dozen conservative Republicans warned repeatedly at a news conference their party courts disaster at the polls if they embrace amnesty.
"Many of those who have stood for the Republican Party for the last decade are not only angry. They will be absent in November" when it comes time to vote Representative J.D. Hayworth said.
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