Catch-44: It is now a crime to not commit a crime

You’ve heard of Catch-22.

If you try to get out of flying dangerous combat missions by claiming to be insane you prove yourself sane, because that’s what any sane person would do.

This has got to be Catch-44.

Speaking Thursday to members of various Latin, Urban and Asian chambers of commerce, John Trasviña, assistant secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said his agency will not tolerate housing discrimination against illegal immigrants even in Arizona with its tough new state law.

"The Fair Housing Act still applies in Arizona. Our message to them (landlords) is the law does not give them the right to check on the immigration status of tenants," he said.

This would seem to run counter to terms like misprision of a crime, accessory after the fact and aiding and abetting, because being in this country illegally is a crime.

Specifically, it is a crime punishable by fine or imprisonment for any person “knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.”

I thought they were trying to do away with don't ask, don't tell.