Your history is incorrect.
Reagan signed the Kennedy amnesty in 1986 which gave 3.5 million illegals citizenship because the previous Carter, Nixon,Ford, and Johnson administrations didn’t even know who was in the country. The bill was passed with strict enforcement measures which Reagan wanted in there. Teddy Kennedy and the rest of Congress PROMISED us there would never be another amnesty.
Then nobody enforced the law. Bush the Elder, Clinton, Bush the younger, nobody, including Congress, for 20 years.
That wasn’t Reagan’s fault.
Now,we are just keeping them at their word. No more amnesty.
Reagn wasn’t soft on illegals. This was the political reality at the time. In fact, the number of illegals was only supposed to be 1.5 million, but it was more than double.
That’s why when they say there is only about 12 million illegals, the real number is more like 25-30 million.
Reagan also stated that granting the ‘86 amnesty was the worst decision of his presidency...