The big news lately is the Arizona legislation to try and deal with cost and security issues related to the number of illegal immigrants in the State, or at least get the Federal Government’s attention to do their job to maintain secure borders.
This has been a 24 hour/day story and constantly in the paper. But I haven’t read anything yet about the one thing that comes to my mind. Specifically, didn’t we ‘fix’ this problem under Reagan? So I looked it up, and sure enough found the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and Reagan’s statement upon signing:
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/110686b.htm
The most relevant sections are these:
“The act provides these three essential components. The employer sanctions program is the keystone and major element. It will remove the incentive for illegal immigration by eliminating the job opportunities which draw illegal aliens here. We have consistently supported a legalization program which is both generous to the alien and fair to the countless thousands of people throughout the world who seek legally to come to America. The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans.”
“The act I am signing today is the product of one of the longest and most difficult legislative undertakings of recent memory. It has truly been a bipartisan effort, with this administration and the allies of immigration reform in the Congress, of both parties, working together to accomplish these critically important reforms. Future generations of Americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our borders and thereby preserve the value of one of the most sacred possessions of our people: American citizenship.”
I believe that the bi-partisan legislation that Bush attempted to get through Congress was similar to this 1986 act in many respects. It was defeated by union leaders on the left and conservatives on the right.
Before passing an entire new bill, it seems that an analysis should take place on what failed in the 1986 Reagan legislation and deal with that issue first. From what I can tell, the only real failure was the plan to regain control of the borders. If that had been successful we wouldn’t have the conflict and issues we face today. Therefore, those who say we need to fix that problem first are correct. There is no reason to have confidence in new legislation unless the problems of the prior legislation are fixed first.
Once the commitment of secured borders is fulfilled, it will be easier to get bi-partisan legislation on the issues that arose as a result of the defects in the prior legislation relative to secure borders.
It certainly seems that if a small country like Israel with 6 million people can secure hundreds of miles of borders, the U.S. with over 300 million people should be able to do the same.
Thinking about the immigration issue makes me recall similar Presidential statements about Social Security and Health Care. Check these statements made by Presdient Carter that confirm my recollections:
HEALTH REFORM
I’m glad that in 1977 we solved the problem of fraud in government administered health plans.
“This bill will go a long way to eliminating fraud in the administration of the health care programs of our country. It will shift to heavier penalties for those who are convicted of false claims, kickbacks–changing these from misdemeanors to felonies–and also prohibiting those who are convicted of this crime from delivering any services in the future.”
SOCIAL SECURITY
Similarly, I’m glad we solved the Social Security funding problems later that year:
“The most important thing, of course, is that without this legislation, the social security reserve funds would have begun to be bankrupt in just a year or two, by 1979. Now this legislation will guarantee that from 1980 to the year 2030, the social security funds will be sound.”
