No, what's really ludicrous is to try to negate what Ronnie said then, based on the world as it is today.
Ronnie said what he said in response to anti-immigration sentiments in his day. He didn't qualify his statements in any way, and the immigration problem that existed then was a major problem to them. They couldn't say "this is not so bad, wait 'til you see what happens twenty years from now!".
Those words are Ronald Reagan's beliefs on the subject of immigrants, and immigration...deal with it.
You are still bent on comparing apples with oranges by trying to equate the MINOR immigration problems of the early 80s with the CRISIS of today. When Reagan signed that blanket amnesty it held a number of conditions. One condition was that it would be a ONE TIME. NEVER AGAIN DEAL. The Amnesty also held provisions that the U.S. would start enforcing its laws on immigration and it didn't take long for the lobbyists and bureaucrats to the whittle those conditions completely away. Should Reagan have known better? Perhaps but I'll tell you this, if Reagan knew that the conditions of the amnesty bill would be thrown out the window and immigration would spin out of control like it has for the last 20 years I seriously doubt he would have signed that amnesty bill.