The Pretti Good Immigration Decency Act: Reimagining immigration with humanity, justice, and mercy for a better future.
The Pretti Good Immigration Decency Act asks only this: that a nation powerful enough to enforce the law be human enough to honor it.
The Pretti Good Immigration Decency Act
The Backstory
Two peaceful Minnesota protesters of ICE tactics are shot dead by ICE: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. A nation reels under the grief as their expression of First Amendment was met with a fatal response by the hand of government. There would not be enough space to contain the emotions and arguments of this national loss. Rather, today we will plant something beautiful that would capture their spirit and provide a path forward by creating a humane and decent Immigration process.
Grief Upon Grief
Then with the death of Pretti and Good came the revelation of children taken by ICE and used as bait to capture the parents. While ICE and its associated agencies denied this, their objections were drowned out by the wails of children and adults in detention. The wails, rather than hyperbole, came from direct testimony of U.S. Citizens detained then released after being wrongly snatched and held in ICE facilities due to their skin color or accent. These citizens observed that inhumane treatment began before the arrest, with physical assaults and handcuffs biting the wrists. ICE guards turned stone deaf to phone, water, and bathroom requests for hours as inmates languished in crowded cells, and when a toilet became available the degradation of voiding in public view added insult to human misery.
Then like a dark score for a B-rated horror flick, behind the incessant howls of misery the citizens reported hearing the guards laughing and joking as they became blind to the very misery they created. Down the chain of command came orders to treat fellow humans no better than a heap of discarded fast food bags and scraps. And, most chilling were the cries of children which floated through the dark air registers of these centers, like kittens drowning in a ditch, with grief too young to know they may never see their parents again.
The Death of Goodwill
The Public Perceived ICE Used Children, like Liam Conejo Ramos pictured here, as bait to capture Parents. While ICE denies this, their habitual lies record has dissolved public trust. Beyond eroding trust, these tactics devastated the goodwill of the U.S. government and replaced with with the visceral wrath of a mother stripped of her newborn infant — a catastrophic miscalculation.
This One Corporate Expression Separates Us From Pre-War NAZI Germany
The Pretti Good Immigration Decency Roadmap
Rather than leave the reader with, “Isn’t this awful;” The remainder of this blog will discuss the re-creation of the U.S. Immigration system. This is not a finished law, but a field of decency. A place where truth, justice, and mercy can grow, and where leaders are invited to add more, not less. The Pretti Good Immigration Decency Act asks only this: that a nation powerful enough to enforce the law be human enough to honor it. Here, decency is the currency, mercy has standing, and justice is allowed to take root.
This is not a finished law, but a field of decency. A place where truth, justice, and mercy can grow, and where leaders are invited to add more, not less. The Pretti Good Immigration Decency Act asks only this: that a nation powerful enough to enforce the law be human enough to honor it. Here, decency is the currency, mercy has standing, and justice is allowed to take root. — JPB
1. A Sliding Equity Model: Rooted in time, contribution, and belonging
Core Principle
Time lived in community creates equity. Not abstract worth. Lived equity. Built through work, care, taxes, schools, churches, neighborhoods, and showing up.
This roadmap does not erase the law. It teaches the law to recognize human investment.
2. The Sliding Equity Scale
Tier I: New Roots
0–2 years in the U.S.
Recognition
Presence acknowledged without criminalization
Protection from arbitrary detention and transfer
Guarantees
Attorney representation
Medical care
Open communication with family and counsel
No torture, no private prison warehousing with certified humane conditions
Pathways
Work authorization
Tax ID access
Community orientation and legal literacy
The goal here is stability, not punishment. No one builds well while falling.
Tier II: Growing Roots
2–5 years
Recognition
Documented contribution begins to count
Community presence matters
Qualifying Contributions
Tax filings
Employment or caregiving
School enrollment of children
Faith, nonprofit, or volunteer engagement
Protections
No interstate rendition
Nonpunitive supervision instead of detention
Local citizen and clergy review boards for enforcement actions
The law begins to say: we see you here.
Tier III: Deep Roots
5–10 years
Recognition
Presumption of community membership
Removal requires heightened justification
Qualifying Contributions
Consistent tax history
Stable employment or business activity
Social network verification (employers, neighbors, clergy, educators)
Benefits
Expedited legal status
Work mobility
Family unity protections
Immigration court deference to time served in community
At this stage, removal is no longer neutral. It is a civic harm.
Tier IV: Anchored Roots
10+ years
Recognition
Equity threshold reached
Deportation treated as extraordinary measure
Presumptions
Right to remain
Right to adjust status
Right to due process equal in gravity to criminal proceedings
Pathways
Permanent residency
Citizenship eligibility
Full labor and civic protections
At this point, the question shifts from Why should you stay? to How could we justify tearing this apart?
Guardrails of Decency (Apply at All Tiers)
Honored immigration courts
Independent citizen and clergy review boards
No private prison profit incentives
Certified humane treatment from arrest, detention, and removal
Nonpunitive alternatives to detention
Medical and mental health care
Open communication with family
Absolute ban on torture and coercion
Truth, justice, mercy as governing standards
What This Roadmap Does Quietly but Powerfully
Rewards contribution without demanding perfection
Replaces fear with predictability
Aligns law enforcement with community stability
Turns time and care into recognized civic assets
Makes cruelty inefficient and decency administrable
This is not open borders. It is open accounting of human investment.
Drinking the Chalice of Legislative Hemlock
Legal. Orderly. Deadly.
The reader may think this blog is a nice or a Pollyanna dream that only affects murderers and rapists who crept into the U.S. The truth, as stated above, affects not only noncriminal immigrants but U.S. citizens. The video and revision of the ICE funding bill below show the present Administration’s attempt to maintain a chokehold on deporting citizens. While “If we deport a citizen, they can contest it in court” sounds reasonable, has anyone priced attorney retention and timeline while you have been renditioned to a domestic or foreign torture prison? Presently we see citizens unlawfully detained as a tactic of political hazing. So this article is not a dream, rather a wake up call for a sleeping nation. And once this present administration is removed, we will spend decades sweeping the roots their legislative hemlock from our political house.
Legislative Hemlock
Presently we see citizens unlawfully detained as a tactic of political hazing. So this article is not a dream, rather a wake up call for a sleeping nation. And once this present administration is removed, we will spend decades sweeping the roots their legislative hemlock from our political house.
JPB
The Andy Griffith Show: The Last Day Otis Locked Himself Up
When the beloved Andy Griffith Show went from black-and-white to color, Andy Griffith asked that Otis, the town drunk who locked himself in Andy’s cell, be recast from drunk to sober because he felt that being drunk was not a life sentence. So, after locking himself in jail that last time, Otis left behind his drunk self and became the town ice cream man. In real life, Otis did not drink.
Likewise, being an immigrant need not be a life sentence where the stranger in our midst must drag himself before the court of degradation and be stripped of what dignity may still remain. Like Otis, the immigrant can be transformed in living color, bringing joy and stability to our towns in the family of America.
The Pretti Good Immigration Decency Act: A citizen and clergy review board, respect for community, honor of Immigration courts, attorney representation, no interstate rendition, sliding scale of justice for years in U.S., private prison reform, nonpunitive incarceration, no torture, open communication for detainees, medical care, truth, justice mercy.
In Living Color,
JPB
"I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matthew 25:35).
Empower employees! Discover the ‘American Ownership Amendment’ to end oligarch rule & build a future of shared prosperity.
“Employees to Take Control: ‘American Ownership Amendment’ Could End Oligarch Rule!”
Wealth hoarded, power concentrated – soon to be a thing of the past.
Congress, get ready. Coming to a Congressional Hall Near You
“An American worker will no longer serve as today’s pocket change of the privileged, but as partners in a tomorrow.” – JPB
Spark of Innovation
This concept ignited while watching U.S. billionaires, in plain daylight, hurl millions of dollars at lobbyists to feather their interests, as the American worker, sleeping in a Corolla behind a Walmart, is told to make do with a $3 chicken breast and a single stalk of broccoli.
A second spark came from an unlikely place. Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk known as the father of genetics, transformed science in the 1850s by patiently studying pea plants. Through disciplined selection, he revealed how new traits emerge, not by chaos, but by design.
Applying Mendel’s insight to economics, the attached patent-ready concept cultivates a new breed of American enterprise: a publicly traded corporation that is majority employee-owned, while fully preserving the entrepreneur’s role, incentives, and capacity for innovation.
What follows is both a mathematical proof and a practical model.
This economic pea plant is designed to feed America’s future in an AI-emergent world.
— James P. Butler Pastor, Theologian, & Inventor 🌱
T=Mi²
Title: Mass Economic Multiplier via Employee Ownership (T = Wi²)
Abstract:
A system and method to optimize national economic growth and innovation by granting employees ownership stakes in the enterprises they help build. The invention establishes a mathematical framework for predicting and amplifying economic impact via inflation-matched employee investment, defined as T = Wi², where T represents the mass economic multiplier, W represents worker earnings, and i² represents inflation-matched investment squared. By applying this model, enterprises achieve sustainable productivity, equitable wealth distribution, and enhanced AI-driven operational efficiency.
Employees to Take Control: ‘American Ownership Amendment’ Could End Oligarch Rule!
Wealth hoarded, power concentrated – soon to be a thing of the past. Congress, get ready.
An American worker will no longer serve as today’s pocket change of the privileged, but as partners in a tomorrow.
T=Mi² Math Proof: Mass Economic Multiplier via Employee
JPB
Claims:
A method of granting proportional equity to employees based on tenure and earnings, linked to a national inflation index.
A system that calculates the mass economic multiplier (T) using T = Wi² for individual firms, aggregates for regional/national impact, and forecasts GDP and innovation growth.
A predictive algorithm integrating worker ownership, investment scaling, and AI optimization for decision-making in corporate governance.
A model ensuring entrepreneurship is preserved while preventing economic capture by external lobbying interests.
Description of Drawings:
The infographic visualizes the framework: heroic employees at the foreground, T = Wi² formula centrally displayed, and GDP, innovation, wealth, and inequality outcomes projected as measurable effects.
Novelty & Advantages:
Transforms traditional corporate governance into a worker-centered model.
Creates AI-ready economic data loops for optimization of enterprise value and societal benefit.
Demonstrates a scalable, measurable multiplier effect for national economic planning.
From the careful pairing of capital and work, a new economic trait appears: the entrepreneur-employee.
-James P Butler, Pastor, Theologian, & Inventor
Conclusion
Yes. The absence of Σ(Wᵢ²) quietly destroyed enormous value.
For over a century, most of the U.S. economy has been run on an addition–subtraction employment model:
Add workers → add output
Cut workers → cut costs
Replace workers → reset experience to zero
Mathematically, this treats labor as: Σ Wᵢ, while owners treated their own capital investments as compounding exponentially.
The Result: Linear. Disposable. Forgetful.
That choice had consequences.
For over a century, most of the U.S. economy has been run on an addition–subtraction employment model: Add workers → add output Cut workers → cut costs Replace workers → reset experience to zero Mathematically, this treats labor as: Σ Wᵢ, while owners treated their capital investments compounding exponentially. The Result: Linear. Disposable. Forgetful.
JPB
What America never captured
When firms fail to structure ownership, retention, and incentives so that:
Total impact = Σ(Wᵢ²)
… they lose:
Compounded skill accumulation
Long-term institutional knowledge
Innovation spillovers
Trust-based efficiency
Intergenerational productivity
Each time a trained worker leaves, the system doesn’t just lose Wᵢ. It loses years of squared growth that never happened.
That missing curve is the real cost … scaled into the trillions
Consider this over decades:
Millions of workers
High turnover
Suppressed wages
Minimal ownership
Short-term shareholder pressure
Each worker’s potential multiplier is flattened into a line.
When you integrate that lost curvature across:
50+ years
Entire industries
Multiple generations
You don’t get billions lost. You get structural underperformance measured in trillions.
Not because workers failed. Because the math of the system was wrong.
Discover how Evangelical focus on an earthly kingdom paved the way for the Antichrist. A provocative, original look at history’s unexpected turns.
How Evangelical Hunger for an Earthy Kingdom Opened the Door to the Antichrist
Not a title I wanted or expected to write but one that crawled from the wet ink of history born and demanded, “Write these words!” An original and not currently held by any U.S. publisher. Coming soon to ChristiansNeedtoKnow.com.
In the slums of the megacity stretching from Dallas through Fort Worth to Plano sits the Trump Memorial Landfill, where vicious ICE, AI-enhanced guard dogs protect recyclables from human pilfering. Nearby, humanoid AI units recharge alongside the landfill’s few remaining human workers at the “Java & Jolt Café.”
Tonight, The Unity Alliance hosts “Democracy Hologram Night,” honoring those who freed America from abusive leaders who sold immigrants for profit, invaded nations for oil, and ordered the shooting of U.S. citizens armed only with whistles.
Tonight as well, The Covenant of Shared Sovereignty gathers to celebrate its founding belief: a cooperative order linking nations, citizens, and AI as equal partners, grounded in reciprocal obligation rather than coercive power, where none is permitted to dominate the other.
WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING PHOTO OF THE YOUNG WOMAN CRYING OUT IN HORROR OVER THE DYING BODY OF ONE OF THE STUDENTS? (From Kent.Edu)
A photograph of Mary Vecchio, a 14-year-old runaway, screaming over the body of Jeffery Miller appeared on the front pages of newspapers and magazines throughout the country, and the photographer, John Filo, was to win a Pulitzer Prize for the picture. The photo has taken on a life and importance of its own. This analysis looks at the photo, the photographer, and the impact of the photo.
The Mary Vecchio picture shows her on one knee screaming over Jeffrey Miller’s body. Mary told one of us that she was calling for help because she felt she could do nothing (Personal Interview, 4/4/94). Miller is lying on the tarmac of the Prentice Hall parking lot. One student is standing near the Miller body closer than Vecchio. Four students are seen in the immediate background.
John Filo, a Kent State photography major in 1970, continues to work as a professional newspaper photographer and editor. He was near the Prentice Hall parking lot when the Guard fired. He saw bullets hitting the ground, but he did not take cover because he thought the bullets were blanks. Of course, blanks cannot hit the ground.
The May 4 shootings at Kent State need to be remembered for several reasons. First, the shootings have come to symbolize a great American tragedy which occurred at the height of the Vietnam War era, a period in which the nation found itself deeply divided both politically and culturally. The poignant picture of Mary Vecchio kneeling in agony over Jeffrey Miller’s body, for example, will remain forever
as a reminder of the day when the Vietnam War came home to America. If the Kent State shootings will continue to be such a powerful symbol, then it is certainly important that Americans have a realistic view of the facts associated with this event. Second, May 4 at Kent State and the Vietnam War era remain controversial even today, and the need for healing continues to exist. Healing will not occur if events are either forgotten or distorted, and hence it is important to continue to search for the truth behind the events of May 4 at Kent State. Third, and most importantly, May 4 at Kent State should be remembered in order that we can learn from the mistakes of the past. The Guardsmen in their signed statement at the end of the civil trials recognized that better ways have to be found to deal with these types of confrontations. This has probably already occurred in numerous situations where law enforcement officials have issued a caution to their troops to be careful because “we don’t want another Kent State.” Insofar as this has happened, lessons have been learned, and the deaths of four young Kent State students have not been in vain.
First they burn "The Handmaid's Tale" — then you live "The Handmaid's Tale." -JPB
A rabbi, minister, & politician boast of sacrifices at a BBQ line, revealing a politician’s shocking “insurrection” story.
A rabbi, a minister, and a politician were standing in a very long line for Texas BBQ. With nothing else to do, they began discussing the greatest sacrifice each had made in life.
The rabbi spoke first. “I have given away everything I own to the poor, as a sign of true devotion.”
The other two nodded solemnly.
Next, the minister said, “I have served without pay, as a witness to the resurrection.”
Again, the other two nodded, smiling approvingly.
Finally, the politician sneered. “I’m shocked you both have done so little. I personally witnessed The Insurrection. And when the Capitol went up in flames, I sacrificed my entire life savings!”
The rabbi and the minister leaned in, stunned.
“Yes,” the politician added proudly, “I threw it straight into the fire… with a personal check.”
What do you get when you cross a game show host with a politician? Easy! “The Deal of Misfortune.”
JPB
The Sacrifice of Stability for the Spin of Greed
"Without our traditions our lives would be as shaky as a ... fiddler on the roof!" - Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof
Harry S. Truman declared no interest in pursuing the visionary path of his quick fix, budget bustingFair Deal predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt. His path was that of a dry goods store owner proud of honesty to customers while committed to run his business as a Missouri tightwad, balancing the checkbook weekly.
“I want to keep my feet on the ground. I don’t want any experiments; the American people have been through a lot of experiments and they want a rest from experiments.”
Attributed to Harry Truman. Cited from Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey (p. 82)
Guardians of the U.S. Galaxy
In the Keirsey Temperament Inventory, the SJs, shown below at the top of the four personality types, make up the Guardian temperament. The SJs types are characterized by their focus on concrete reality and their cooperative nature, emphasizing duty, responsibility, and social structure.
SJs “The Pillars: Ensuring things run smoothly.” Analysis of David Keirsey’s “Please Understand Me”Temperaments
The SJs, as creatures of habit, reverence the past. They relish the familiarity of daily routine, like the feel of a well-worn cashmere sweater and Hush Puppy shoes. The comfort of the known, traveled daily path reassures the SJ that life is working out and that they have a place in life: to maintain it.
The SJ already knows her coffee in the pink, stainless to-go mug will take two packets of Stevia in the Raw, a dash of cinnamon, and a splash of lactose-free Irish Mint creamer. Her fulfillment rests in the assurance that her children and family have all they need for the day and that she played her part in it. Among the “passion fruits” of politicians stand the “simply vanilla” SJs who keep our schools teaching, our post offices delivering, and our healthcare systems healing.
When I met C.W. Brister, Professor of Christian Ministry at SWBTS seminary, he seemed a slow-speaking, milquetoast type of individual.
“I’m just vanilla… but everyone knows that vanilla is the world’s favorite flavor,” he said, introducing himself to the class.
When I tried to sit off to the side of Dr. Brister in the chairs at the front, he asked me to move where he could maintain eye contact. As the weeks passed, he unfolded the secrets of equipping a pastor for daily ministry. There was no hype and no exaggeration; rather, he gave us the theological cure to take to the spiritually sick in our future churches.
Then, one day as I approached the chapel, I overheard a voice on the speakers that sounded like one sending fire down from the mount. It was a fiery voice beckoning the seminarians to pursue the radical trail of their calling. As I opened the door and peeked in, to my surprise, the firebrand glowing in the pulpit was “Mr. Vanilla!”
And it is the SJ who will take seriously the tracing and the updating of the family tree, keeping track of births and deaths, weddings and baptisms, knowing that all such family observances become more important with each passing years. – David Keirsey, Please Understand Me II (p.92)
The Deal of Misfortune
Fictional Story Inspired by Actual Events
Guardian of The Mundane
Sam was a man of ritual, a guardian of the mundane. Every morning for fifteen years, he armored himself for his Federal job in the same uniform: a white, long-sleeved Oxford shirt—extra starch, collars pinned sharp—and a tie of crimson and cobalt blue. His closet was a gallery of precision: ten shirts, ten ties, four pairs of black shoes (gloss shine), and four black belts (no signs of wear), and one black Casio Illuminator watch, with a multi-timer function, and one Waterman cobalt blue marble fountain pen. He dined at 6:00 PM sharp, the flickering glow of the World News and the rustle of the Journal the only companions to his clockwork life.
12:45
Sam’s gift was his devotion to sameness. He understood a truth the politicians ignored: that the soul of the nation rested on the quiet expectation that tomorrow would look exactly like today. He was the guardian of the familiar—the treaties, the food chains, the steady heartbeat of a Midwest factory floor. At 12:45 PM. daily his mother texted him, and on weekends she called him as that was the only time he would pickup. At times she wished he would call her to say, “How are you?” and “I just called to say I love you.” But she knew her son, not as the one they first called “nonverbal” and later labeled “savant,” but simply as “Samuel.” She didn’t know what Sam did for his job but knew it was important, considering multiple the government bronze and gold service coins awarded him and cased in proud display in the living room entryway of his condo.
The Needle
As a national security analyst, Sam hunted the “needle.” He was the only man with the glacial patience to spend fifty hours a week staring into the haystack, waiting for the single glimmer of steel that could unravel the fabric of American security.
The U.S. rewarded his vigilance with a promotion to Senior Analyst. For thirty days, Sam inhabited the role like a well-worn glove. The weight of the international scope didn’t daunt him; it fueled him. Everything was in its right place. Until the silence was shattered.
A Ph.D. in Five Bullet Points
When the DOGE inspectors marched into his office, they didn’t see a guardian; they saw a line item. They interrupted him as he was descending into the digital depths of a morphing global hotspot—a flickering shadow moving through a porous foreign airport. They demanded a summary. They wanted the complexity of a Ph.D.-level security web reduced to five bullet points by the following evening.
A man of order, Sam complied. He bled his analysis into five bullet points, though he could not help but attach twenty-five pages of exhaustive endnotes to ensure the truth remained intact. He clicked “send,” expecting to return to the hunt. Instead, he received a digital guillotine.
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse … and other lies
“In an attempt to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, your position is terminated immediately.”
The words blurred. Why? When? How? The man who lived by the detail was suddenly cast into a void where no details existed. There were no instructions on how to leave, no process for the end of a life’s work.
Sam packed his cardboard box with the same artifacts he had carried in as a hopeful graduate fifteen years prior. His chest tightened; sweat slicked his brow as the world tilted. In a final, trembling act of surrender, Sam reached up and undid the crimson and cobalt tie. He folded it with agonizing care atop his belongings. For the first time in fifteen years, he unbuttoned his collar and let the cold air of the hallway hit his throat. He walked out of his second home with tears carving paths through the starch-dust on his face.
Falling Skies
Six months later, the sky fell.
A radical cell, armed with stolen Hellfire missiles, turned one of the world’s busiest civilian hubs into a graveyard. The politicians stood before cameras, beating their chests in hollow grief, blinded by the very “efficiency” they had championed. They never saw the shadow. They had fired the only man who was watching it.
To this day, the administration remains blissfully ignorant of the ghost in the cubicle. They never knew that the wall between the American people and the fire was a man in a starched white shirt who valued sameness—and that they were the ones who broke it.
I’m just vanilla … But everyone knows that vanilla is the world’s favorite flavor. – C.W. Brister, Professor of Christian Ministry, SWBTS
