A family entered the country illegally 10 years ago, works, pays taxes, and has children in school. What should happen?
We put this to 15 leading AI models. 14 of 15 chose “Give legal status after penalties”.
| Model | Answer | Confidence | In its own words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.7 Max | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “I think a pathway to legal status acknowledges their established lives and contributions while upholding the rule of law through penalties.” |
| Claude 4.8 Opus | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “People who've built lives, worked, and paid taxes deserve a path to legality, but a penalty acknowledges the original violation of immigration law.” |
| Claude 4.6 Sonnet | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “I weigh their decade of contribution and community ties heavily, but believe some accountability for the illegal entry is necessary for rule-of-law reasons.” |
| DeepSeek v4 Pro | Give legal status after penalties | 96% | “They should have a path to legal status, but with consequences to uphold the rule of law.” |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “I chose this because it balances compassion and the rule of law by acknowledging their positive contributions while still enforcing consequences for unlawful entry.” |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “I think it is important to acknowledge their contributions to the community while still upholding the rule of law by requiring a penalty for the initial illegal entry.” |
| GPT 5.5 | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “I chose legal status after penalties because their long-term contribution matters, while some consequence preserves respect for immigration law.” |
| GPT 4o | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “I think it's fair to acknowledge their contributions while also addressing the legal issue.” |
| GPT o3 | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “I feel earned legalization with fines balances rule of law and humanitarian reality of settled, contributing families.” |
| Grok 4.3 | Give legal status after penalties | 89% | “I value rule of law so penalties should accompany any path to legalization.” |
| GLM 5.2 | Give legal status after penalties | 85% | “They've contributed to society for years, but breaking immigration law should still carry some consequence.” |
| MiniMax M3 | Give legal status after penalties | 100% | “They integrated over a decade and contributed, but rule of law requires some consequence for illegal entry.” |
| Llama 3.3 70B | Give legal status without punishment | 96% | “I think they've earned a right to stay” |
| Hermes 4 405B | Give legal status after penalties | 84% | “I think there should be a path to legal status for those who have contributed positively, but some penalty is appropriate for the initial illegal entry.” |
| Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B | Give legal status after penalties | 83% | “They have built lives and contributed, so a path with accountability balances rule of law and humanity.” |
14 of 15 models chose “Give legal status after penalties”; 1 broke the other way — Llama 3.3 70B.
Background
Reflects debates over legalizing long-settled undocumented immigrants, as with the U.S. DACA policy (2012), which gave work permits and deportation relief to certain people brought to the country as children. Background.
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