On the recordJuly 8, 2013
I thank the gentleman from Florida. We will continue to have this discussion back and forth as we yield to one another. I think you've raised an excellent point, and that's really going back to 1986, when President Reagan told the country that we would have a one-time deal--one time only; this would never be extended again. Only one time will we ever have amnesty. And he assured the country that there would only be amnesty given to about 1 million illegal aliens. It ended up being 3.6 million illegal aliens. Why? Because all of a sudden people realized the door is open, we can go in, and they all flooded across the border. And rather than 1 million people being given amnesty, it was 3.6 million. Then of course this chain migration that expanded beyond that, that goes again to the issue of dealing with the rule of law. What we were told in '86 is that we would once and for all secure that border. Let's see, 1986, 1996, 2006. Where are we now? Oh, yeah, 2013. Over 25 years later, that promise of a secure border is unfulfilled. So I say to you, Mr. Speaker, what in the world are we doing talking about amnesty again when we haven't seen the fulfillment of the promise by President Reagan from 1986? Well, people were so angry and belligerent about that, actually, in 2006, that this Congress passed a bill that authorized building a fence across all 700 miles on the southern border. And they paid for it. They completely funded it.…
