On the recordMay 20, 2010
But I wanted to add to the dialogue here on amnesty. Because amnesty has been the central word in the immigration debate from the beginning of immigration debate, and we go back to 1986, when President Reagan signed the amnesty bill. And even though I disagreed with that act, it was one of the very few times that President Reagan let me down, but he was in a position where he believed he had to sign the bill. And the bargain was if we would grant amnesty to a million people that were in the United States illegally, then they would turn up the enforcement of immigration law, and there would never be another amnesty again. And that's been, well, 1986. So 24 years ago when he signed that bill he was at least straight up and honest about it and said it's amnesty. Now, we understood what amnesty was in 1986, but I watched them try to change the meaning and the definition of the word amnesty throughout this debate...
