The Republicans ought to consider what the Simson-Mazzoli amnesty of 1986 did to their hopes and dreams in California. Up until that time, California usually went Republican in presidential elections, and the GOP held the state house for 72 years during the period between the Spanish-American War and the Kosovo War. Now the state is irretrievably “blue,” and the California Republican Party is moribund.
The GOP got exactly what they wanted and now they want to do it for the entire country.