Feds to schools: You must accept children of undocumented immigrants

This wil be a long post, but I want to respond to the issues as they were discussed.

If you look at the numbers post 1965 until 1986, it reveals an immigration that isn’t totally broken as it relates to Mexican, Central, and South American illegals.

Over the years the legal immigration numbers were increased. Bush 41 doubled them to about a million a year.

The last time the illegal immigrant was confronted prior to the bill Reagan signed in 1986, was during the Eisnehower administration in the mid 1950s. That's was 30 years prior. If you take 3.5 million and you divide by 30, you get around 116,000 per year, the approximate number of illegals crossing our border. And Reagan had been told there were only one million illegals in courtry in 1986. That would have reduced the figure to around thirty-three thousand per year crossing over during the prior 30 years.

Reagan rightly so, still saw this as an issue that need to be confronted. He signed the bill.

In 1986, the bill Reagan signed, provided Amnesty for 3.5 million illegals. Those illegals had traveled here over the prior 30 years. That puts the yearly figure quite low. The bill Reagan signed provided for tough employer sanctions, and strengthening our border INS services.

The Simpson-Mazolli bill legalized about 2.7 million. The government estimated that the number would be 1 million. Fraud was rife with phony document mills being set up within blocks of processing centers. In order to be eligible, you had to be here for five years to apply.

The amnesty bill had a impact on our immigrant numbers, but it was legal immigration that had a much greater impact.

Well, up until this time, I would agree. The 1965 bill could have caused the major problems. The numbers of illegals weren't impacting the nation devistatingly yet. This was perhaps the second biggest problem I had with McCain/Kennedy. It prescribed increasing the legal numbers of immigrants so massively that we would be over-run anyway, legally. I do agree with the primise you're advancing regarding the 1965 act.

When that bill was passed, I thought it was sending the wrong message. We have seen what resulted. It was an open border free-for-all, and that isn’t what Reagan signed into law.

Ed Meese agrees with you. It was Reagan's greatest mistake.

I don't believe you reward bad behavior, so in that Meese and I agree. And I have to admit, when you supsidize or reward something, it's only going to cause it to grow. Still, what happened after Reagan didn't have to happen. Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama loved it. Don't ask me why, but the Republicans and the Democrats joined to do severe damage to this nation.

I don't believe a sitting Reagan would have allowed what they did to take place. He specifically addressed the employer sancions and increasing border security at the time he signed the bill into law, so I know he wasn't going soft on preventing this sort of thing to take place in the future. His comments in the day were about getting things back under control. Reagan wasn't a guy to come out and lie to your face. If he said something he meant it. A guy who saw even one million illegals in our nation as a problem, wasn't going to sit idly by while ten million more came across our border. Both Bushes and Clinton did.

Bush, Clinton, Bush, and now Obama allowed our nation to be occupied by foreign nationals. Mexico has essentially occupied our territory with it’s citizens. California is essentially a Mexican state. The Mexican government and it’s consulates run the show. ID’s are provided there. Now our banks accept them. These people all get US services for free.

There are 60 Mexican consulates in the US. There is even discussion in Mexico to allot two seats in the Mexican legislature to represent these overseas Mexicans who are allowed to vote in Mexican elections. Over 22 billion dollars a year are being sent back to Mexico in the form or remittances. Mexico has a vested interest in Mexican immigration to the US, legal and illegal.

I agree. And we have a vested interest in not only putting a stop to it, but getting the ones here to leave. And with efforts in some states to end their scourge, it is evident that with proper dis-incentives, these people will migrate away. If we did it at the federal level, they would have no choice to go home merely to survive.

It’s a joke. The 1965 act and the 1986 bill did not authorize what is taking place now. Asshole presidents on down have created this mess, and laying it at Reagan’s feet as some people do, reveals a complete lack of understanding of actually took place.?

When you reward something, you get more of it. In the grand scheme of things, the Immigration Act of 1965 has had a far more devastating impact on this country. It changed our demography forever. It will make the Dems the permanent majority party. And it will turn this country into a Third World country eventually. You can't unring a bell.

I agree that rewarding something gets you more of it. I still believe lack of enforcement is the real culprit here. There are no business raids. The police no longer turn in foreign nationals here illegaly. Sanctuary cities have cropped up. Churches now orgnize to support the illegal immigrant.

The INS no longer incorprates inland efforts to capture, detain, and deport. Once here, they're here..

This wasn't a result of the bill Reagan signed. It was a complete surrender on the issue, and if anything Reagan signed stiffer penalties into law. How many employers were fined or sanctioned due to hiring illegal immigrants. I'll bet you can't remember one. I can't.

I can only remember one or two raids on businesses that hire illegal in the last twenty four years. They used to take place all the time.

Reagan's fault? No And that's why I ultimately can't agree with Meese. Enforce all our laws and this happens, blame Reagan all you like and I'll join you. Stop all inland enforcement and taking any measures to keep this under control, and then try to label it as Reagan's Folly? No way.Let's say some governor pardoned five bank robbers. At the same time he made manditory that all sentences be doubled that had to do with bank robberies. Then all of a sudden banks across their state were being robbed in significant numbers. On first blush you'd say the governor was a fool.

Then you find out that robbers were not being pursued. They weren't charged anymore. They were all released and allowed to keep the money they took.

Still think the governor would be the real cause of the problem? No. Of course not. Lack of effort directed toward aprehension, detainment, prosecution, recoverig funds, penalties, and stiff sentences would be the problem.

Would the pardon have been advisable? No. I don't advocate what Reagan signed into law as it applies to amnesty. That wasn't all that Reagan signed either. And enforcement ending, there's what would-be illegal aliens keyed off of. That and the amnesty, that was a poor non-starter to begin with. Still, if our border were under control as it should be, employer sanctions were in place, people were being deported in big numbers... that would stem the flow, and reverse the perception that it would be a free ride here.

We have done nothing to discourage illegal immigration. The subsidy Reagan supplied by signing that bill, was chicken-feed to what was given them after that.

Bush was perhaps the single most idiotic individual in the whole mess, because his dim-witted proposal to grant another Amnesty was alone probably responsible for ten to fifteen million new illegals in country.

Bush 43 was bad, but I would blame Bush 41 even more for the doubling of legal immigration. Over 29 million LEGAL IMMIGRANTS have entered the US since 1990. In 1970 one in 21 was foreign born; today it is one in 8, the highest in more than 90 years; and within a decade it will be one in 7, the highest in our history.

Bush 41 did more than double it. Going from an average of 166,000 to 900,000 per year, that's a massive explosion. And yet, Bush 41 didn't have a freaking clue. And when his son started talking amnesty, it made tha 900,000 per year look small. They were both terrible on this issue. Even Liberal Time Magaine estimated the in flow to be around three million per year. I think it was more like 1.5, possibly two, for about four or five years. It may have been much longer than that. I just don't know.

What I do know, is that our leaders gave sanction to the dismantling of our nation.

After the 1986 bill, we should be smarter than to ever buy off on this again.

Special interests are driving our immigration policy. The Chamber of Commerce wants more foreign workers to depress wages further and increase profits. The Dems want future Dem voters to make them the permanent majority party. Religious groups want more immigrants to fill their pews. Unions want more members. Ethnic groups want more political power. There is a huge amount of money behind this effort. The GOP views amnesty as a bargaining chip to get what their corporate paymasters really want, i.e., a doubling of the guest worker programs.

I agree with this. Everyone was looking for what they could get out of this issue. If I can make another $1.00 per year, this has to be good. That mentality, plus the mentality of shoving all jobs off-shore, what a series of fiascoes.

We need to stop cold any services to illegal immigrants whatsoever. We should start going after businesses, apartment owners, and anyone else who helps them here.

Try doing that and the federal government will be all over you like white on rice.

I know. It would take a true Conservative in the White House, and a Conservative run House and Senate. They would simply have to go around the SCOTUS.

Local cities and police agencies that do not comply with federal law concerning immigrants should lose their ability to obtain any funds from the federal government.

LOL. Do you believe the Obama administration or Hillary will do that? We just had a backdoor amnesty by Obama for the Dreamers. Up to 1.8 million are eligible with over 500,000 already legalized complete with SSNs and work permits. Obama should be impeached for that alone. So what does the GOP do, introduce its own version of a Dreamer amnesty sponsored by Cantor. Insane. But no one is holding these people accountable. The American worker has been abandoned by both parties.

No, but we can't even count on them to give a damn about keeping our diplomats alive. We both know it would take good people to do any of this. And if we don't have them, then our nation is done.

That would have reduced the figure to around thirty-three thousand per year crossing over during the prior 30 years.

You have to remember that you had to be in the country for at least 5 years to apply for an amnesty. 2.7 million applied. No one really knows how many illegals were in the country--just like today.

Reagan rightly so, still saw this as an issue that need to be confronted. He signed the bill.

He signed a bad bill. It was supposed to be a one-time amnesty. As it turned out, we have had 8 mini-amnesties since then with the latest being Obama's backdoor Dreamer amnesty.

Ed Meese--An Amnesty by Any Other Name

This was perhaps the second biggest problem I had with McCain/Kennedy. It prescribed increasing the legal numbers of immigrants so massively that we would be over-run anyway, legally. I do agree with the primise you're advancing regarding the 1965 act.

The Gang of 8 bill increases legal immigration far more massively than McCain-Kennedy. The Gang of 8 bill has passed the senate with 14 Reps signing on to it. McCain-Kennedy didn't get that far.

Still, what happened after Reagan didn't have to happen. Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama loved it. Don't ask me why, but the Republicans and the Democrats joined to do severe damage to this nation.

It was predictable. Special interests win out.

Reagan wasn't a guy to come out and lie to your face. If he said something he meant it. A guy who saw even one million illegals in our nation as a problem, wasn't going to sit idly by while ten million more came across our border. Both Bushes and Clinton did.

Once you grant an amnesty, you open the door for more amnesties to follow. It sends the message to those contemplating entering the US, that they will have their status legalized eventually. You could say that this amnesty actually increased future illegal entries. Amnesty is the gift that keeps on giving with chain migration. Those amnestied in 1986 are still having an impact as their relatives they sponsored are now sponsoring their own extended families to come here. It was just another justification to increase legal immigration numbers.

The Seven Amnesties Passed by Congress

1. Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA), 1986: A blanket amnesty for some 2.7 million illegal aliens

2. Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994: A temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens

3. Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997: An extension of the rolling amnesty created in 1994

4. Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) Amnesty, 1997: An amnesty for close to one million illegal aliens from Central America

5. Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act Amnesty (HRIFA), 1998: An amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti

6. Late Amnesty, 2000: An amnesty for some illegal aliens who claim they should have been amnestied under the 1986 IRCA amnesty, an estimated 400,000 illegal aliens

7. LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000: A reinstatement of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty, an estimated 900,000 illegal aliens

Add to that Obama's backdoor Dreamer amnesty (DACA) for 1.8 million illegal aliens.

Why weren't the laws enforced under Reagan or Bush 41? Again, legal immigration is the real problem. We have just had the two highest decades of legal immigration in our history.

1965

The national origins quota system was abolished. But still maintained was the principle of numerical restriction by establishing 170,000 Hemispheric and 20,000 per country ceilings and a seven-category preference system (favoring close relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent resident aliens, those with needed occupational skills, and refugees) for the Eastern Hemisphere and a separate 120,000 ceiling for the Western Hemisphere.

1976

The 20,000 per-country immigration ceilings and the preference system became applied to Western-Hemisphere countries. The separate Hemispheric ceilings were maintained.

1978

The separate ceilings for Eastern and Western Hemispheric immigration were combined into one world-wide limit of 290,000.

1980

The Refugee Act removed refugees as a preference category and established clear criteria and procedures for their admission. It also reduced the world-wide ceiling for immigrants from 290,000 to 270,000.

1986

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) was a comprehensive reform effort. It (1) legalized aliens who had resided in the United States in an unlawful status since January 1, 1982, (2) established sanctions prohibiting employers from hiring, recruiting, ar referring for a fee aliens known to be unauthorized to work in the United States, (3) created a new classification of temporary agricultural worker and provided for the legalization of certain such workers; and (4) established a visa waiver pilot program allowing the admission of certain nonimmigrants without visas.

Separate legislation stipulated that the status of immigrants whose status was based on a marriage be conditional for two years, and that they must apply for permanent status within 90 days after their second year anniversary. 1989

A bill adjusted from temporary to permanent status certain nonimmigrants who were employed in the United States as registered nurses for at least three years and met established certification standards.

1990

Comprehensive immigration legislation provided for (1) increased total immigration under an overall flexible cap of 675,000 immigrants beginning in fiscal year 1995, preceded by a 700,000 level during fiscal years 1992 through 1994, (2) created separate admission categories for family-sponsored, employment-based, and diversity immigrants, (3) revised all grounds for exclusion and deportation, significantly rewriting the political and ideological grounds and repealing some grounds for exclusion, (4) authorized the Attorney General to grant temporary protected status to undocumented alien nationals of designated countries subject to armed conflict or natural disasters, and designated such status for Salvadorans, (5) revised and established new nonimmigrant admission categories, (6) revised and extended through fiscal year 1994 the Visa Waiver Program, (7) revised naturalization authority and requirements, and (8) revised enforcement activities.

Immigration during the decade 1951 to 1960 totaled 2,515,479 (an average of about 250,000 per year), the highest since the 1920s. This is not surprising, since the two intervening decades included the depression of the 1930s and World War II. The gap between Eastern and Western Hemisphere immigration also narrowed: of the 2.5 million entries, almost a million entered from the Western Hemisphere.

Since 1965, the major source of immigration to the United States has shifted from Europe to Latin America and Asia, reversing the trend since the founding of the nation. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), Europe accounted for 50 percent of U.S. immigration during the decade fiscal years 1955 to 1964, followed by North America at 35 percent, and Asia at eight percent. In fiscal year 1988, Asia was highest at 41 percent, followed by North America at 39 percent , and Europe at 10 percent. In order, the countries exceeding 20,000 immigrants in fiscal year 1988 were Mexico, the Philippines, Haiti, Korea, India, mainland China, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and Jamaica.

Refugees and the Refugee Act of 1980 Between 1975 and 1980, refugees and refugee-related issues dominated congressional concern with immigration more than they had since the years following World War II. Beginning with the fall of Vietnam and Cambodia in April 1975, this five-year period saw the admission of more than 400,000 Indochinese refugees, the enactment of major amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act in the form of the Refugee Act of 1980, and the exodus from Mariel Harbor, Cuba, to southern Florida.

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