Republicans vs. Reagan: the GOP abandons the gipper on immigration.

AuthorWelch, Matt
PositionRonald Reagan

ON APRIL 23,1980, at a Republican presidential primary debate, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush discussed America's southern border in a way that sounds like science fiction to our modern ears.

Bush presented illegal immigration as a problem of prohibition, not criminality: "As we have kind of made illegal some kinds of labor that I'd like to see legal, we're doing two things: We're creating a whole society of really honorable, decent, family-loving people that are in violation of the law, and secondly we're exacerbating relations with Mexico," he said.

Reagan, meanwhile, wanted to tear down the notion of a border wall: "Rather than talking about putting up a fence," he said, "why don't we work out some recognition of our mutual problems? Make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then, while they're working and earning here, they'd pay taxes here. And when they want to go back, they can go back. They can cross. Open the borders both ways."

That was then. President Reagan's 1986 amnesty, which was sold as a way to drastically reduce illegal immigration, was instead followed by a major increase. By 1996, when President Bill Clinton signed a much more punitive legislative package, both major parties had shifted heavily into restrictionism. "We cannot tolerate illegal immigration and we must stop it," the 1996 Democratic Party platform read, sounding a lot like Donald Trump today. "For years... Washington talked tough but failed to act....Our borders might as well not have existed. The border was under-patrolled, and what patrols there were, were under-equipped. Drugs flowed freely. Illegal immigration was rampant. Criminal immigrants, deported after committing crimes in America, returned the very next day to commit crimes again."

That year also marked the first time in modern history that a Republican Party platform opposed the birthright citizenship enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. (On the Democratic side, Sen. Harry Reid was decrying birthright citizenship as early as 1993, though he later reversed his position.)

In GOP politics, presidential candidates not named "Reagan"or"Bush" have been increasingly severe in their approach to illegal immigration. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) almost saw his 2008 candidacy fail over his prior support for comprehensive immigration reform, and he reacted by reversing several previous positions. Mitt Romney famously said he would encourage illegal...

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