Thread: Rubio Says Reagan Was Wrong on Immigration

Rubio Says Reagan Was Wrong on Immigration

By Kyle Munzenrieder
Miami New Times (Politicks)
Tue., Nov. 17 2009

You know a candidate is really serious about painting himself as a hardcore conservative when he tries to place himself to the right of Right Wing Deity Ronald Reagan.

But that's exactly what Marco Rubio did today, by declaring that the Gipper's support of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was a bad move.

The act (which, by the way, was signed when Rubio was 15) made it illegal for employers to knowingly hire illegal immigrants, but also granted amnesty to some 2.7 million illegal workers who had been in the US since before 1982.

"In 1986 Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to 3 million people. You know what happened, in addition to becoming 11 million a decade later?

There were people trying to enter the country legally, who had done the paperwork, who were here legally, who were going through the process, who claimed, all of a sudden, 'No, no no no , I'm illegal.' Because it was easier to do the amnesty program than it was to do the legal process," Rubio told a Martin County Republican Womens Federated meeting today, according to the Palm Beach Post.

"I think [Reagan] did it for the right reasons, but I think it ended up working the wrong way," he continued.

I guess Rubio can kiss that Zombie Reagan endorsement good bye.

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/ ... ong_on.php

Rubio is a two faced lying politician. He blocked all our immigration enforcement bills in Florida last year despite massive public activism and support for the bills.

We need someone better to run for the GOP in Florida.

W

The Alan Simpson a Republican with Regan who helped write the bill for the 1986 "amnesty" during Regan's Presidency, has come out and said that he and he knows Regan would have NEVER passed the bill if they knew what was going to happen.

He said that they wrote into the bill that NO ILLEGALS would be able to work in the country and they expected the tough immigration laws would be enforced.

He said he is so very sorry that they did not write the "enforcement" part of the bill in a much tougher stance, with actual details saying how "enforcement" would work and putting in $$$ to ensure "enforcement" would work.

Here is what the bill said:

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), also Simpson-Mazzoli Act (Pub.L. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3359, signed by President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986) is an Act of Congress which reformed United States immigration law. The Act made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants (immigrants who do not possess lawful work authorization), required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status, and granted amnesty to certain illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously.

The Act also granted a path towards legalization to certain agricultural seasonal workers and immigrants who had been continuously and illegally present in the United States since January 1, 1982

Romano L. Mazzoli was a Democratic representative from Kentucky and Alan K. Simpson was a Republican senator from Wyoming who chaired their respective immigration subcommittees in Congress. Their effort was assisted by the recommendations of the bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform, chaired by Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, then President of Notre Dame University. The law criminalized the act of knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant and established financial and other penalties for those employing illegal aliens under the theory that low prospects for employment would reduce illegal immigration. It introduced the I-9 form to ensure that all employees presented documentary proof of their legal eligibility to accept employment in the United States.


We all know that there was no real way to "verify" if workers were legally here in 1986, because other than E-verify, we are in the same place today.

Here in CA - E-Verify is not "mandatory" so companies can use it - OR NOT.

In San Bernandino where the "illegal immigration" problem has exploded to the point where it is a top foreclosure county in the USA due to Bank of America giving home loans using Matricular cards as ID - very few employers use E-Verify. They don't have to so they have adopted a "don't ask - don't tell" policy.

I think Marc Rubio is just saying that is how the 2.6 million became 11 million - they did not have the means in 1986 to install an immediate E-Verify system and they did not make it "mandatory" with strong enforcement and penalties in the bill.

We have laws on the books right now that our border is to be secure - but if you don't have strong laws on the books for enforcement and $$$ to insure enforcement and "reward" men who do enforce it - like a Sheriff Joe - then it is meaningless.

Sort of like the laws for drunk driving were prior to Mothers against Drunk Driving.

If you think Marc Rubio is bad then you should look at Charlie Christ. I would take Marc Rubio over Charlie Christ any day of the week.

When you have the man that wrote the bill coming out and saying the same thing as Marc Rubio -

5 September 2006
Former Senator Alan Simpson Ruefully Recalls 1986 Amnesty
[Paul Nachman] @ 7:48 am

[b]Alan K. Simpson of Simpson-Mazzoli fame (or infamy) is back in the news. The House Judiciary Committee’s field hearing Friday, 9/1, in Dubuque, Iowa was on the subject “Is the Reid-Kennedy bill a repeat of the failed amnesty of 1986?,â€

This is not news, a few years later Reagan himself said this was "my worst mistake".