Shamnesty (sham + amnesty)

“Shamnesty” (sham = amnesty) was first used in 1975, when protesters felt that U.S. president Gerald Ford’s Vietnam War policy towards draft evaders did not offer amnesty, but a “sham amnesty” or “shamnesty.” The word “shamnesty” is used by critics of Amnesty International who deride the group as “Shamnesty International.”
 
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 was sponsored by senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy, but it met with stiff conservative resistance and did not pass into law. Critics of the amnesty bill often labeled it as “shamnesty.”
 
 
Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary
Main Entry: sham
Pronunciation: \ˈsham\
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps from English dial. sham shame, alteration of English shame
Date: 1677
1 : a trick that deludes : hoax “feared that the deal was a sham”
2 : cheap falseness : hypocrisy “saw through the hollowness, the sham, the silliness of the empty pageant” — Oscar Wilde
3 : an ornamental covering for a pillow
4 : an imitation or counterfeit purporting to be genuine
5 : a person who shams
   
Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary
Main Entry: am·nes·ty
Pronunciation: \ˈam-nə-stē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural am·nes·ties
Etymology: Greek amnēstia forgetfulness, from amnēstos forgotten, from a- + mnasthai to remember — more at mind
Date: 1580
: the act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals
   
Wikipedia: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007
The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, or, in its full name, the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1348) was a bill discussed in the 110th United States Congress that would have provided legal status and a path to citizenship for the approximately 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States. The bill was portrayed as a compromise between providing a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and increased border enforcement: it included funding for 300 miles (480 km) of vehicle barriers, 105 camera and radar towers, and 20,000 more Border Patrol agents, while simultaneously restructuring visa criteria around high-skilled workers. The bill also received heated criticism from both sides of the immigration debate. The bill was introduced in the United States Senate on May 9, 2007, but was never voted on, though a series of votes on amendments and cloture took place. The last vote on cloture, on June 7, 2007, 11:59 AM, failed 34-61 effectively ending the bill’s chances. A related bill S. 1639, on June 28, 2007, 11:04 AM, also failed 46-53.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Shamnesty : the Presidential clemency program
Author: Daniel Huntington
Publisher: [Ann Arbor, Michigan], 1975.
Edition/Format: Book : English
     
Google News Archive
2 March 1975, Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, “62 arrested during protest,” pg. 3A, col. 1:
WASHINGTON (UPI)—Sixty-two persons were arrested Saturday when they refused to the While House grounds during a protest of United States policies In Indochina and what they called President Ford’s “shamnesty program.”
   
Google Books
Long Time Passing:
Vietnam and the haunted generation
By Myra MacPherson
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
2001
Pg. 349:
Not until Senator Edward kennedy’s amnesty hearings in 1972 were deserters considered in the same terms as draft resisters. A number of witnesses strongly argued that deserters were the military equivalent of draft resisters and stressed that since they more often came from disadvantaged backgrounds, they especially needed the benefits of amnesty. WHen Ford’s limited clemency program went into effect, it was roundly—and accurately—denounced as “shamnesty” by amnesty activists.
   
Google Groups: uk.current-events.terrorism
Newsgroups: uk.current-events.terrorism
From: ” George”

Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 05:58:08 GMT
Local: Thurs, Jun 2 2005 11:58 pm
Subject: Shamnesty International
 
Google Groups: alt.politics.immigration
Newsgroups: alt.politics.immigration
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Date: 23 May 2006 08:48:36 -0700
Local: Tues, May 23 2006 9:48 am
Subject: The Shamnesty X-Ray File
 
The US Senate is acting out an old joke.  In the joke, a doctor is sitting in his office with a patient.  Looking at the X-rays, the doctor says, “It looks like a major operation is needed.”  The patient squints his eyes a moment and then asks, “Can’t we just touch up the X-rays?”
 
In its Shamnesty bill, the Senate is “touching up the X-rays.” It’s assuring that the real problems of illegal alienship will endure and grow worse with time.  It’s the pattern of 1986, deja vu all over again, the same old same old, only intensified by a factor or 10.
 
Michelle Malkin
Harry Reid’s shamnesty stand: Senate Bill 9 will tear down the border “wall”
By Michelle Malkin •  January 8, 2009 11:08 PM
 
Michelle Malkin
Obama’s shamnesty distraction
By Michelle Malkin •  April 9, 2009 12:13 AM