I do not recall Reagan granting amnesty unless you are thinking about the boat people that were turned lose by Castro. That group included a lot of criminals. There was no way to send them back except to allow them to die on the high seas. The most egregious act of granting amnesty was perpetrated by Clinton when he allowed amnesty to illegals prior to his second election. That was clearly a fraud perpetrated on the American people ... although the numbers were not nearly as great as what we are now seeing. We are now talking about 10,00,000 to as many as 20,000,000 million illegals. Nobody really knows how many.
"From an immigration point of view, Reagan will best be remembered for signing the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (‘IRCA’). IRCA was a contradiction of idealism and pragmatism, as was the case with the President who signed the bill into law. It took the pragmatic view that the while the government frowned on illegal immigration, we could provide an amnesty to help normalize the lives of millions of American residents. Indeed, millions of American citizens were legalized under the program and owe a thanks to the President for proposing what was then a very controversial plan."....
http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/ronnie.htm
You're really stupid, aren't you? There's been no doubt even by the most staunch Reagan Conservatives that he did grant Amnesty.
I don't think you're qualified enough to be calling Bush an idiot so go think of something else to accomplish today like, pick up a history book and learn to read.
Nope. He did. The deal then (in 1986) was there would be amnesty but the borders would be secured. Of course, there was no followup in either Bush administration or the clinton administration on the securing the borders part.
The effect of that was a huge new incentive for illegals to cross the border--the hope of future amnesty with no attempt to stop them.
That's why I am so adamant about only two issues on immigration--(1) It has to secure the borders first with a fence. Why a fence? Because that is a fixed reality that future dems would have a harder time undermining administratively than the expedient of, just, say, more agents. The INS can just have them turn their backs when they see an illegal per orders of Pres. Hillary. A wall makes it harder to do that; (2) We have to address the anchor babies issue.
If those two issues are addressed, I am much less concerned about bringing in legal immigrants or, even, guest workers.
But the problem is, if we do the same deal with the devil today we did in 1986 (amnesty for border security), we will get the same deal--amnesty and no border security. Amnesty is easy. It happens all at once. Border security requires ongoing commitment. There is no such commitment from any Dem and a lot of Republicans.