It is not Newt's fault that "amnesty" seems to be the one word those of us on the right have turned into Newspeak. Strictly speaking amnesty means a general pardon or forgiveness of (some class of) offenses, which removes all legal rememberance of the offence, but as applied to immigration offenses, the word turns slippery in meaning just as the left's real-world Newspeak "health care", "climate change", and the like do. Sometimes the person using the word will mean strictly what the English word amnesty means, which would imply if their immigration offenses are completely pardoned or forgiven, and there was no legal rememberance of them, that theretofore illegal immigrants could seek citizenship -- and Newt's "Red Card" proposal is not that, it regularizes the legal status of those not deported (remember he did advocate some deportations) under a legal disability due to their past immigration crime -- sometimes (cf. Bachmann's attacks on Gingrich) the word is used to mean application of any measure short of deportation to illegal immigrants. Given that, his application of the word "amnesty" qualified with adjectives is almost necessary.
Long-time FReepers will recall I have often made a distinction between "amnesty-into-guest-worker-status" and "amnesty-onto-a-path-to-citizenship", and written in favor of the first, and with vehemence equal to any FReeper against the second. I think, given my commitment to preserving English against the encroachment of Newspeak, I should stop making that distinction.
Regularizing the status of illegal immigrants in any way that places them under a disability that prevents them from becoming citizens is not amnesty. It remembers their offense but on humanitarian grounds, for economic reasons, or perhaps simply out of recognition that our immigration laws combining lack of a guest-worker program and inconsistent enforcement have been broken for decades, applies a measure other than deportation.
You have a lot of gall pretending Newt's critics are the ones engaging in Newspeak. We're not the ones playing word games here. Newt is the one who coined the phrase 'path to non-deportation'. But I guess you have to try and pretend the critics are wrong here. Pah.