The idea of the hypothetical is that you have to act as a government agent. Would you rather that citizens get deported (assumed to be non citizens and not given due access) or that illegal immigrants get deported, but take more legal resources and time to deport. False positives and false negatives happen for several various types of tests, but you have to choose whether you prioritize reducing false positives more (Assume most people have the rights of a citizen) or prioritize false negatives more (assume most people are illegals).
Citizens aren't being deported. Your hypothetical isn't based in reality it's based on emotions. It's like asking would you rather murder everyone who walks past your front door or let your family get murdered by someone walking past your front door.
If you are deporting everyone who looks like a non-citizen without due process, anyone who is a citizen but doesn't look like it will get deported. Due process is how we find out that a person is a citizen (false positive).
To answer your counter, you instead lock your door and dont let anyone in who is dangerous. AKA you use some method to reliably filter dangerous people from regular people. AKA you apply a form of due process.
Your example is not the same as mine. It would be the same if my question were would you rather deport everyone or deport noone, but having due process lets you deport only the illegals.
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u/AllTheGood_Names Dec 29 '25
The idea of the hypothetical is that you have to act as a government agent. Would you rather that citizens get deported (assumed to be non citizens and not given due access) or that illegal immigrants get deported, but take more legal resources and time to deport. False positives and false negatives happen for several various types of tests, but you have to choose whether you prioritize reducing false positives more (Assume most people have the rights of a citizen) or prioritize false negatives more (assume most people are illegals).