When elected officials knowingly create or fund a policy carrying a foreseeable risk, they should account for that risk on the other side of the ledger.

If officials spend a dollar on such a policy, a dollar should be accounted for to address the risks borne by innocent people.

One dollar on the policy side. One dollar on the risk side.

The ledger should balance.

Government demands accountability from the private sector. Public officials should do the same: what does a policy cost, what risks does it create, who bears them and what happens when officials get it wrong?

We should consider the experience of someone facing deportation. But we should also consider the innocent family sitting at a red light when an intoxicated driver comes toward them at nearly 80 miles per hour.

People choose whether to enter a country illegally, obey its laws and drive intoxicated.

The innocent family sitting at that red light didn't make those choices. They simply bore the consequences.

Empathy cannot have a preferred side of the ledger. Neither can accountability.

I know what the other side of the ledger looks like. Her name was Katie.

Katie was 20, visiting friends at the University of Illinois and sitting in a car stopped at a red light in Urbana.

She did not create Illinois immigration policy or choose the risks officials had accepted.

She simply went out with friends.

An intoxicated illegal immigrant who had previously been deported and was using a false identity came from behind at nearly 80 miles per hour.

Katie is now in a........

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