Two things I observed about the 1986 amnesty. One- tough immigration laws were passed along with amnesty to insure the problem would not repeat, liberals cried the laws were too harsh so darn few were ever enforced. The second thing I observed was wholesale fraud took place. Immigration authorities were accepting statements from people who knew the illegals as proof they qualified for amnesty, along with real estate agreements, rental agreements, pay stubs, utility bills, all easy to fake. I bet more false documents were filed than real ones. Same will happen this time.
And one of the “stressed at the time points of the 1986 amnesty”,(besides the fact that it was a one time never to be repeated action by the feds) was that it would prevent the USA from ever becoming a country with an officially designated caste tiered system of “legal foreign residents vs legal citizens”.
I know people who are legal residents, but not citizens, of the USA. They don't get to vote, they don't (or didn't) have access to taxpayer funded programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and all the other social “welfare” programs, including Unemployment, WIC, etc.
Because this nation can not survive, if ever larger numbers of people live here, but are not equal under the laws.
One law for me, another for thee...NOT a viable way to retain our Republic, our freedoms or our national unity.
For all those multiple millions of foreign legal immigrants in waiting, who sincerely want to become citizens of the USA, I can only apologize for the depravity of our current elected leaders, and promise them that multiple millions of people in the USA are working towards putting them first in line, and not last!