The difference I see here is he is a citizen of this country and here legally. When he lost his job (if that is why he was sleeping in a park), he didn't open someone's door to their home, move in, and stay in that home illegally expecting the homeowner to take care of his needs. As a citizen, he is entitled to whatever benefits our taxes provide (medical care for the poor, welfare to work, section 8 housing, et al) but that doesn't give him the right to move into someone else's house and expect a free ride.



>>>>They choose to come into our country knowing that it is illegal. Premeditated. You know, if someone threw them out of a plane and they landed on a big fluffy pillow in the middle of Iowa, finding themselves here illegally, well gosh darn, I think that would be a similar circumstance of finding yourself unemployed with no place to live and sleeping in the park. They are NOT the same.
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>>>No, though both are misdemeanors. And both are the results of a decision to not enforce for a while. Imagine you sleeping in a park for months, and then all of a sudden you get arrested by the same cops who wished you good night all the time. Policy change... or, IOW, the regal prerogative.
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>>You conveniently missed the point of it being premeditated. I also don't run the risk of being deported sleeping in the park. You can say it all different ways, even in French if you want, and they will not be the same.
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>They can't be the same, of course. If they get deported out of the country, they still have the old country to go to. If you get deported out of the park, you have absolutely no place left to go :).
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>Are you seriously saying that sleeping in a park for months is accidental? I mean, falling asleep once may be, but doing it dozens of times... not only premeditated, but actually repeated action, which is probably worse legally than one-time. And imagine the three-strikes-out rule. You're lucky that nobody bothered you, and you didn't even know whether it was illegal or not. And the legal principle that ignorance is no excuse is the same everywhere, AFAIK - you could have got a life in some places.