Ronald Reagan's Immigrant Amnesty Bill...and Other Political Ironies and Impertinent Observations

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, USPolitics.einnews.com

June 21, 2007

In my most recent column I republished some vicious comments by big circulation right-wing columnists. ("The Immigration Debate Is Gumming Up The Gears of The Right Wing Hate Machine"). The right wing hotlines are sizzling these days with attacks on President Bush and many Republican members of Congress for proposing that illegal immigrants already in the U.S. be afforded a path to citizenship---rather than being rounded up and herded back across the border.

What I neglected to mention in my earlier column was that right wingers are also trying to cover up what for them is a most embarrassing historic fact: Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform Act of 1986, an act that gave millions of illegal immigrants....amnesty.

Well, say the right wingers, it wasn't really "amnesty." Illegal immigrants who had resided in the U.S. continuously for five years were eligible for temporary resident status. After another 18 months they could be upgraded to permanent residency, and after another five years they could apply for full citizenship.

They had to pay application fees, of course. And they had to understand U.S. government, speak English, pass a medical exam and keep out of jail. Otherwise...welcome to the U.S.A.!

The measure currently on the table is actually quite a bit tougher on illegal immigrants than Reagan's law. Applicants have to jump much higher hurdles, including having to return to their country of origin and reapply for entry and pay substantial fines.

Nevertheless, right wing commentators are bending themselves into verbal pretzels trying to rationalize why the bill Reagan signed shouldn't be considered an "amnesty" while the one giving them fits these days should.

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Some other ironies and observations about today's political scene:

One of the Republican Party's most stinging congressional defeats in 2006 was the loss of six-term Arizona Congressman J.D. Hayworth. Hayworth was a vociferous opponent of any form of immigrant amnesty, and that helped get him whomped by Arizona voters who didn't buy the head-'em-up, move-'em-out tough guy talk.

Amazingly, despite the Hayworth example, and others, many Republicans have picked up the "minuteman" flag and still consider it good politics. Among them, most of the GOP candidates for president.

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Going back just a little further, California used to vote Republican fairly consistently in statewide elections California voted for Bush over Dukakis, elected Reagan governor twice and gave him its electoral votes for president twice, and elected a string of Republican senators in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

That was before former Republican Governor Pete Wilson used immigrant-bashing as a campaign ploy in his 1992 reelection campaign. Except for the anomaly of Arnold Schwarzenegger, California hasn't voted Republican since.

It's not hard to see a pattern here. I see it. You see it. How come all those otherwise smart Republicans don't see it?

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A few more impertinent questions, and observations on other political topics.

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Tony Blair is seen as the enabler who provided cover for Bush's Iraq invasion. So why is he considered an ideal emissary to convince Arabs to settle the intractable Israeli-Palestinian problem?

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What does it tell you about the state of Republican presidential politics when a guy who few people know (Fred Thompson) jumps to the top of the poll among GOP voters?

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President Bush has now used his veto on two issues: stem cell research and ending the Iraq war. Both issues have overwhelming popular support. Not exactly a formula for resurrecting his favorable ratings, or for helping the Republicans in Congress who vote to sustain these vetoes.

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Two years ago President Bush turned his longtime political adviser Karen Hughes into an "undersecretary of state for diplomacy," with a mission to combat Arab world hostility toward the U.S.

...and she hasn't been heard from since.

We don't know whatever happened to Karen Hughes. But we do know what's happened to anti-American hostility in the Arab world since she took that job...and it's not "mission accomplished."

Joe Rothstein, editor of US Politics Today, is a former daily newspaper editor and long-time national political strategist based in Washington, D.C.

See all previous articles by Joe Rothstein here.