What Reagan actually said about border security – according to history, not according to Trump

Ronald Regan: “Rather than talking about putting up a fence, 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,” he said. “And then while they’re working and earning here, they pay taxes here. And when they want to go back they can go back.”

The border, he said, should be open “both ways” – and border security policy should take into account the economic challenges facing Mexico.

Reagan’s words that night, and his stance in countless other public and private statements as president, contrast starkly with the false history lesson President Trump offered Friday in an early morning tweet, hours before a potential government shutdown over funding for the president’s border wall.


“Even President Ronald Reagan tried for 8 years to build a Border Wall, or Fence, and was unable to do so,” the president wrote in a tweet. “Others also have tried. We will get it done, one way or the other!”

Trump’s simplified characterization of Reagan’s policies are not accurate.

“There was not any discussion at the senior policy levels during the Reagan administration about fencing or a wall that I can recall,” Doris Meissner, who was executive associate commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service during the Reagan administration, wrote in an email.

Reagan signed a sweeping immigration reform bill into law in 1986, which made any immigrant who entered the country before 1982 eligible for amnesty.

“I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here, even though some time back, they may have entered illegally,” Reagan said during a 1984 presidential debate.

[link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]

Last Edited by Sardonicus Landshark on 12/28/2018 09:21 PM