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 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 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.
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.
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).
