Reagan's Amnesty

            More than thirty years ago President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that was meant to secure the borders. The law is known as Reagan’s Amnesty because part of the bill allowed illegal aliens to become citizens. Amnesty was given to millions of undocumented immigrants, but the wall was not built. Reagan thought that he had made a good deal, but he did not.

            President Donald Trump and Senator Chuck Schumer are now negotiating a deal to allow illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children to stay in return for securing the border. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a policy that allows people who came to the country illegally as children – or came legally and stayed illegally – to receive renewable work permits and deferred action for deportation.

            I wonder if President Trump will be better at negotiating a deal than President Reagan was. Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal posted an article about the things that Trump could learn from Reagan. One such thought is as follows.

The big problem with Reagan’s deal in 1986 and Trump’s pending deal is that such deals tend to spin out of control, said James Jay Carafano, a vice president for national security at The Heritage Foundation.

“We think the lesson of 1986 is there is no deal you can make that’s satisfactory,” Carafano told The Daily Signal. “Amnesties undermine border enforcement and enforcing immigration law and just encourage more illegal migration, so any deal is self-defeating.”

            Lucas quotes several other experts who seem to agree with my feelings: “No deal on amnesty until the border is secured.” There are now four times as many illegal immigrants in the United States as there were when Reagan made his deal. We cannot afford to have another deal like it. I believe that we should build the wall or secure the border in some other way before we consider the legal status of anyone who came illegally. We need to close the open door in the wall that allows anyone and everyone that cares to enter to make themselves at home in the United States. It is time to stop the illegal entries!