Amnesty for immigrants: Can it work?
Coachella Valley man is among few who benefited from Reagan-era legislation

Nicole C. Brambila and Daniel González

The Desert Sun & Gns
October 14, 2006
PHOTO
Salvador Valencia jumped the border fence in 1978. When he tried to apply for amnesty in 1986, immigration officers turned him away. He now owns an import shop and a welding business in Cathedral City.

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Decades before Coachella Valley students left their classrooms to protest proposed immigration laws, the nation granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants.

By nearly all accounts, the amnesty legislation President Ronald Reagan signed in 1986 was a massive failure.

It was supposed to end illegal immigration.

In addition to the amnesty, the law beefed up security along the U.S.-Mexico border and, for the first time, tried to punish employers of unlawful workers.

The rationale was that illegal immigration would stop for good if the job magnet was cut off. But employer sanctions never fully materialized and illegal immigration soared.

Congress remains torn on its latest resolution. At the very heart of the debate lies sharp disagreement over the reasons the 1986 law failed.

Some immigrants waited years for amnesty then. For Indio resident Salvador Valencia, that waiting paid off last year.

In thousands of cases, however, the law failed to grant amnesty to those who seemed qualified.

Among them was Julian Reyes De Leon, an Indio resident who 20 years later continues seeking the amnesty promised to him.

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