Ronald Reagan and Immigrant Amnesty

Artifact #1

Today, immigration is a hot topic in the United States.  There are many different stances on the topic, and no one can agree on what action is best to take.  In 1986, President Ronald Reagan passed a law that hugely impacted the United States and remains controversial to this day.  Reagan's law granted U.S. citizenship to about three million illegal immigrants, four of these being Reyna, Mago, Carlos and their father.  This important moment in immigration history is revisited in the NPR feature "A Reagan Legacy: Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants."

President Reagan's law called for the following actions: tighter security at the borders, penalties for employers knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, and, most importantly, the opportunity for amnesty for all illegal immigrants already in the country.  However, since parts of the law, such as the penalty for employers, could not be properly enforced, and the government did not properly control the border, all the law really succeeded in doing was legalizing almost three million people and drawing many more from Mexico.  This is the controversy of the law: did granting amnesty to millions of people help the immigration situation or make it worse?

Reagan, according to his speech writer Peter Robinson, saw immigration from the individual's point of view.  Unlike many today, the president did not see the new immigrants as a waste of resources, but as people who worked hard and took risks to make it in the United States.  Reyna and her family are one example of the individuals who benefited from Reagan's amnesty of 1986.  The family had suffered so much, from years-long separation of the family to the divorce of Reyna's parents, for the sake of better lives in the United States.  However, once in the U.S., they find themselves at a disadvantage because they are not legal citizens.  They work hard for the opportunity to one day become legal.  As Reyna's father says, "Just because we're illegal doesn't mean we can't dream" (Grande 228).  Her Papi, while far from a perfect man, could be credited with at least one thing: his drive to give his children a better life.  He worked hard to provide for them and made sure they excelled in school, and he himself took English classes.  Reyna says, "My father's desire for a better life was palpable.  It was contagious.  It was one of the things I most respected about him.  And I hoped with all my heart that he would be granted amnesty and be allowed to step out of the shadows" (Grande 236).

Stories like Reyna's were what drove President Reagan to pass his law: stories of determined people who endured much hardship for a better life, only to be restricted by a lack of citizenship and therefore a lack of opportunities.  Today, we often see illegal immigrants as nothing but people who take our money, jobs and resources and do not contribute to our country at all.  So while people call for strict measures to rid the United States of illegal immigrants and criticize Reagan's law for worsening the immigration situation, perhaps we should see it from Reagan's perspective once in a while.  These immigrants are not just statistics, or black holes in our economy.  They are people who, like us, want a better life and are willing to pay the price.  Is it really so wrong to deny them a chance?

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