Reagan signed legislation after a bipartisan debate in Congress. Biden simply pretends there’s no border.
It was 37 years ago that President Reagan signed a controversial immigration bill that included an amnesty provision for the nation’s three million illegal aliens.
To call the legislation, officially known as the Immigration Reform and Control Act, a heavy lift would be a understatement. At the time Reagan was in the second year of his second term. Democrats controlled the House while Republicans enjoyed a narrow majority in the Senate. Multiple efforts to advance the bill had gone nowhere over the previous five years, yet the administration persisted.
Finally, in October 1986, the House approved the legislation by a vote of 238-173, with 77 Republicans supporting the measure and 90 opposed. A few days later a bipartisan majority in the Senate that included 29 Republican votes followed suit. Neither side got everything it wanted. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, a conservative Republican, voted “no,” as did Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, a staunch liberal. Yet the process was open and transparent. The voting public’s representatives in Congress ultimately made the call and took responsibility for the outcome. How quaint.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
