A Reagan Legacy: Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants

All Things Considered ^ | July 4, 2010 | NPR Staff

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As the nation's attention turns back to the fractured debate over immigration, it might be helpful to remember that in 1986, Ronald Reagan signed a sweeping immigration reform bill into law. It was sold as a crackdown: There would be tighter security at the Mexican border, and employers would face strict penalties for hiring undocumented workers.

But the bill also made any immigrant who'd entered the country before 1982 eligible for amnesty — a word not usually associated with the father of modern conservatism.

In his renewed push for an immigration overhaul this week, President Obama called for Republican support for a bill to address the growing population of illegal immigrants in the country. This time, however, Republicans know better than to tread near the politically toxic A-word.

Part of this aversion is due to what is widely seen as the failure of Reagan's 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. However, one of the lead authors of the bill says that unlike most immigration reform efforts of the past 20 years, amnesty wasn't the pitfall.

"We used the word 'legalization,' " former Wyoming Sen. Alan K. Simpson tells NPR's Guy Raz. "And everybody fell asleep lightly for a while, and we were able to do legalization."

The law granted amnesty to nearly 3 million illegal immigrants, yet was largely considered unsuccessful because the strict sanctions on employers were stripped out of the bill for passage.

Simpson says the amnesty provision actually saved the act from being a total loss. "It's not perfect, but 2.9 million people came forward. If you can bring one person out of an exploited relationship, that's good enough for me."

Reagan And Amnesty

Nowadays, conservative commentators like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh often invoke the former president as a champion of the conservative agenda. Sean Hannity of Fox News even has a regular segment called "What Would Reagan Do?"

Simpson, however, sees a different person in the president he called a "dear friend."

Reagan "knew that it was not right for people to be abused," Simpson says. "Anybody who's here illegally is going to be abused in some way, either financially [or] physically. They have no rights."

Peter Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter, agrees. "It was in Ronald Reagan's bones — it was part of his understanding of America — that the country was fundamentally open to those who wanted to join us here."

Reagan said as much himself in a televised debate with Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in 1984.

"I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally," he said.

[montag813]

Reagan was dead wrong. He acted emotionally. It was a tremendous mistake. Had Reagan thought it through logically, he would have anticipated that MILLIONS more than predicted would bum rush the border to get amnesty. He would have realized how many of them would have babies, push schools and hospitals to the breaking point, create Spanish-only towns throughout CA and TX, leave hundreds of thousands on welfare, WIC, food stamps, Medicare, etc.

None of that mattered. We were "a nation of immigrants". Illegals "shared our values". Etc. And anyone who disagreed was simply racist. So we got amnesty, and a demographic disaster ensued. Gingrich was all for it. And made it even worse as Speaker in the 1990s. And now he wants even MORE amnesty, as did McCain. No thanks. I will never support another such candidate.

[stephenjohnbanker]

” The CoS(Chamber of Slavery) is currently the biggest threat to the USA and has been flying under the radar for years. THey support the H1-B visa program, they are evil in every sense.. “

THIS is worth repeating too !

[La Lydia]

Agree with you except the Ag lobby has had a big ol’ hand in this mess, as well.