Amnesty
Amnesty is usually understood as the granting of legal status to a foreign national who illegally entered the United States or illegally overstayed their work or travel visa.
Fast Facts
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protective Status (TPS) are not amnesties in the strict legal sense of the word. Rather, they temporarily defer eventual deportation due to extenuating circumstances.
In November 2016, the Heritage Foundation estimated that an amnesty would require an immediate tax increase of $1.29 trillion to finance the infrastructure, school, welfare, and other public costs associated with illegal aliens.
Granting amnesty could result in criminal aliens avoiding deportation.
A 2007 Heritage Foundation study
https://www.fairus.org/issues/amnesty
