thirty years plus since the reagan amnesty. in the '90s we were the environmentalists.ow we don't have a good energy policy. we are talking about the foundation of our economy. energy, the foundations of our life, border security, national security. neil: how do you win that crowd back? >> they have done a very good job. >> go out and engage work on them now. 17% of u.s. population is hispanic. very fast fast-growing population. you have to talk about policies that are good for them. the largest chunk comes from the south of the border. the american problem that we need to do, republicans have been terrible at that. what we need to do is putpeople in the communities and do the hard work and take the hits. it is going to take a lot more hits and obama has done a good job of changing us to a class warfare or ethnic warfare. it is one country, when the country goes down, everybody loses, especially those who are on the low end of the socioeconomic ladder. neil: in the meantime, teddy turner running for congress and running away from his more famous dad. to his credit, he i

guest: they came here at a very lucky time because i came in 1885 and a year later, president reagan passed amnestyfor which allows about 3 million people to become legal residents and my father and my mother were beneficiaries of the mst, so that's how they got her green card. % from 85 to 1990 undocumented, but we got her green card right when i was finishing junior high, ninth grade. my older sister was about to graduate from high school. so undocumented status for something she was really worried about because she was about to graduate from high school and she was on her options in terms of college come in terms opportunity, scholarship, things like that issue might not qualify for because of status. in june, green cards arrived in the mail and that was the most wonderful thing that ever happened. finally we could read with relief. finally we could see a lot of doors open to eyes and i could finally start being a brighter future and be able to step out of the shadows and finally say, yes, i think i will now feel to go to college and pursue my dreams and that's what they did. as soon as i got th

amnesty? >> the problem with that law -- ronald reagan was actually willing to use the word "amnesty" but what it lacked was the enforcement. for the first time ever it was going to become illegal to hire somebody who was not authorized to be in this country so they made it illegal but never enforced it. in the fiscal year 2006 exactly zero employers got fined for that. gwen: it's almost like if you just enforce the current laws you wouldn't have this problem? >> that was the argument that, in effect, killed the last attempt to do this in 2006 and 2007. i think people are becoming for sophisticated now and understand that it's actually impossible to enforce the law based on the tools that we have now. the other big flaw with the 1986 law is that they didn't come up with a rational system for the future flow of immigrants so there was no way for employers to get the employees that they needed. so you have this weak law with a difficult way of verifying whether someone's here legally. you have no way for please to come in legally so they come from illegally. >> there are some familiar faces. joh

our situation, we did the reagan amnesty but we made no provision to meet the economic or familial needs of the country. like 80% or 90% of them, they are here without their papers. you can verify they are not properly here and american agriculture would collapse. what we need to do is provide a system that will actually meet our needs both in the economy whether it is high tech or agriculture and also respect the need for american families to be united. it is now my belief that my son and daughter are part of my nuclear family. i think that is true for americans that have sons and daughters abroad. i think it would be such a tragedy if we became sidetracked on whether or not the 11 million here that respond to the help wanted sign can never become right with the law and never have the aspiration to become an american. we're not talking about giving his citizenship to everybody. what we're saying is, over time, you might gain legal permanent residency in the united states. and if you learn everything there is to know about the american government, learn english so well that you can pass

has to be fair, and bring up the '86 act, and the republicans constantly complain about ronald reagan's amnesty, what happened afterwards, because it encouraged more people to come here illegally. how does a president's plan change that? >> well sh, the president obvioy is trying to figure out a way to do up -- look, i think that is a huge question on the policy is whether in fact there is any way to do anything that looks like amnesty and does encourage more people to come here, and that in the end, the questions are around enforcement and all of these things that have sine quon non for republicans to get on board are being put down to create the prophylactic. >> and can we say that word prophylactics on the show? >> you said the magic word. >> i try to say it every time i'm on the show. >> i'm waiting for condoms to drop from the sky. >> look, if you make the immigration system more open, it is going to be a magnate and it is in some sense, because it is america and one of the unk uncomfortable truths that it is going to happen. >> and stephanie, some might have argued that there were a few t

i believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here even though sometime back they may have entered illegally. >> president ronald reagan discussing his support for amnesty. he hoped that there would be strict border enforcement and more than two decades later it is it a problem . now stiantors are announcing this week they want a path to citizenship with a promise much stricter border inforcement . earlier, i talk would to michael reagan to look back >> my father is waiting for border security and gone from the united states and died in 2004 . we need to live up to what happened in nine 86 under simpson and secure our borders and yet chuck shumer talking about that. that securing the borders should not be the enemy of dealing with the illegals in this country. back in '86, the argument was in we don't secure the border and we are giving amnesty it will be a great influx of more illegals in the country and that's what happened and that's what we need to do first. take care . border and then you deal with the 11 million people who are here and you center to fix the whole immigration policy in the united states of america

. >> bill: and when we had amnesty -- ronald reagan called it amnesty, and he said they deserved it,ts under his program? >> there were similar requirements in terms of having to learn english and background checks, a big flaw was to be eligible you had to have been in the united states as of the first of january of 1982. the law didn't pass until 1986. so there were four years of people who may have been here without papers but they didn't qualify. so it would cover more of the folks who are already here. so we have seen some similar requirements in terms of language, taxes, and background checks, of course. i think that the -- the reaction that many have, and that republicans in particular are fighting against is that they are broken the law, and they need to do something to get right by the law, and therefore you have to have these kinds of requirements. >> bill: angela kelly on immigration reform democrats want it, republicans need it looks like it could happen this year. nobody knows the issue better than angie from the center for american progress. we'll be right back. >> annou

back in 1986 president reagan signed a reform law and granted amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants made a mistake, what lessons should we take from that mistake in his view? his son, michael reagan is here, a political chairman of the reagan group. that's interesting because ronald reagan believed in, i don't know if you want to call it amnesty or what do you want to call it, but in accommodating illegal immigrants in this country and yet, he did not wind up believing that he went about it the right way. tell us more. >> well, you know, part of that also, if you look at simpson, they weren't happy with the end result either because as usual, you take a good piece of legislation and throw it to the house of representatives with the senate and they add things onto it that undermine what that bill was supposed to do. and you know, what my father was concerned about, later on, is that the second half of that bill never took place. the closer to the building, the building of the fence, that didn't happen until my good friend congressman duncan hunter, congressman from san diego started

the mid-1986 border reform pact when reagan gave amnesty and they try to deal with it then.n when the united states economy became this huge loads don't, people were coming across in larger numbers. as we have tightened enforcement and tighten security of the border, people who are here illegally cannot go back to their native country, may in mexico. they are afraid if they go back and they will not be able to get back in. now we have what is generally come to a consensus as 11 million illegal aliens who are in a kind of legal limbo. they broke the law. they are here. they are afraid to leave because they cannot come back. the question before the congress and the administration is how do you deal with this? proposals are being circulated. host: san antonio, texas, republican line. caller: we call it boots and bullets on the border. we have them on the border doing the same thing we do in afghanistan and we stop taking this from the rest of the world. guest: the have been there for some years. it was called operation jumpstart during the administration of george w. bush. in n

suggesting that well the president that's the last the last time anybody suggest a blanket amnesty as ronald reagan in one thousand nine hundred six money did it can we can we talk about having some enforcement and then forcing the laws that are that are on the border now my has arrested no he's very much picking and or using way a legal immigrants than any president is that doesn't mean he isn't forcing all the laws on the books he isn't forcing some laws and he's picking and choosing which laws he well he doesn't already have he's not strange or seeing all of the. laws passed by republican members of congress funded by the n.r.a. well look let's hear let's. just. about serious inforce mint plans and let see that carried to fruition why don't we see here is where i'd like it to begin i don't think that we have an illegal immigration problem or an illegal immigrant problem in this country we have an illegal employer problem in this country people come to this country looking for a job they would not do that if they couldn't get a job i have worked and lived in other countries and every single case

gregg: the last time there was amnesty ronald reagan signed it into law.red because there was no enforcement on employers hiring more illegals and that lured millions more into the united states. why not simply have a useful and workable enforcement mechanism on employers. i was stunned to read that 90% much american employers don't even use e-verify. and it has a nearly 100% accuracy. >> that's another thing we'll want to be taking a hard look at. there is always something on both sides of that equation. there are some employers who abuse that. we'll want to look at that. but you hear from employers across the country, the difficulty of them being able to verify whether they have appropriate employees. gregg: would you be in favor of a short path to citizenship for children but for adult who came here illegally. it would be a more arduous tas. would you vote for that. >> one of the reasons we are having these hearings is to see what will work and what is the best approach forward. one of the things i would be in favor of is putting that on the table and g

when ronald reagan, one of my heroes granted amnesty, i don't think the public is going to put up withore in regards to just sitting there and allowing him by executive order to do what he is intending to do, and i hope that we don't hear that tonight. if we do i think there will be an outcry. i am certainly not going to sit back and take it. and i think america is. neil: always good seeing you. we will find out how much the president is going to offer in terms of trying to deal with this immigration mess and whether everyone who is here in legal, and stages, how you handle that? the president will spell that out set to leave the white house charlie. it's easily for everything, but it does not matter because they're not doing this of it without you. he has to be there in 15 mystically reading committees and all that, but a lot -- he is is not leaving. that is the way it is. you're going to have to deal. ♪ [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of virtually all your imptant legal matters in just minutes. protect youramily... and launch your dreams. at legalzo.com we put the law on

reagan all of the time. he had a conversation one time and said listen, shawn, would you be for amnesty? no. uld you be for taxes? no. then ronald reagan would never have been someone you would have voted for. there's this purity test that republicans have now for some reason. he came to the table and got things accomplished. not everything he wanted. he didn't have to give up some of his conservative believes and values. >> i think that on the republican side, we heard people say they don't want to think about compromise. i remember boehner did an interview where he was afraid to use the word compromise. so hogan probably needs to advise some colleagues on the republican party. they don't think of themselves as liberal. it's easy to kovrp miez. most republican voters think of themselves as conservatives. most of them can't reach a deal. john boehner don't view the compromise as a dirty word on some lefrl. and that's the big challenge that hogan talked about. >> thank you both fwr your time tonight. and we'll keep watching the republicans doing what they're doing. you want change? wait until

reagan passed. which was amnesty. llegal immigrants after the reagan plan passed. he said, listen, if we're going to pass reform, let's pass reform. but let's make sure we don't have a repeat of the reagan episode. >> yeah. and what kind of a threshold are you looking for that you'd feel comfortable with in terms of the technology that you were talking about? you're going to have cutbacks. you're going to lose border patrol agents. you're going to lose feet on the ground, aren't we? >> well, i think a lot of this technology has already been budgeted for, which is the good news. i talked to the people at dhs about this. those towers will be contracted will be on the ground by next february. these aerostats in afghanistan that we've already paid for, we're going to bring them back. these are air assets to see what's going on on the ground. yeah, we may have to appropriate more for this, but honestly, we've been doing this for too long. it's time to get it done. and i think it will advance the immigration reform debate. >

so let's discuss the 1986 amnesty under president reagan. and there are few of us in the united states senate that were present during that debate. in 1980, president reagan campaigned on a promise that he would work to reform our immigration laws and legalize foreign workers in the united states. the president's policies were further shaped by the select commission on immigration and refugee policy that was created in 1978 under president carter. president reagan signed a bill into law on november 6, 1986. so six years after he first ran for president, he signed a law. this law was known as the immigration reform and control act. the process to finalize a bill was long and arduous. it took years; six years to be exact. in 1981, when i was a freshman senator, i joined the judiciary committee, and i was a me of the subcommittee on -- and i was a member of the subcommittee on immigration and refugee policy. back then subcommittees did real work. they actually sat down and wrote legislation. we had 100 hours of hearings and 300 witnesses before

president reagan in the 1980s changed the immigration law when he gave the nasty word amnesty out, and then he shifted the responsibility of policing immigration from government to employers, and the employers in a hard economy and generation now are being punished by the obama administration and the justice department and homeland security by not doing i-9s and policing the immigration of their staff. the economics here are very harsh. what we should be doing is to remove the biblical straw and giving employers the staff and the resources that they need. giving people a path legally in a earned legal since and financial fee they can afford, and yes paying taxes and ferr ferreting out all of the criminals. i'm a former federal pros prosecutors, we do not want to create a place for people to boot strap themselves in on criminal grounds, but again, this will prevent deporting people to areas that should not be, and we cannot detain people here who are scholars, because the detention facilities are abominab abominable. >> clint, i heard you say a couple of things that are surprising, well

amnesty. you're confusing it with what reagan is it. >> cenk: that's right.e been way to the left of obama on that immigration reform. but you could have taken that response and pasted it to the end of any democratic president state of the union speech. it was all the same about the president is mean to us. we want smaller government and less spending and more tax cuts, and more defense spending. we got it. we got it. we got it. so let's move back to what is more important the president's state of the union address. i want to ask you twice if you were concerned about what david brought up before the republican response, which is the issue of social security and medicare. again, the first line he had on how he was going to protect it was really great. then when he started talking about reform that was code word for we will cut it to some degree. did you get the same sense? >> john: no, as i pointed out before the break, i wish this president would start calling them earned benefits and not entitlements. i know people in d.c. who know the president share with m

there was a 1986 border reform act and bonled reagan gave an amnesty and they tried to deal with it then. then when the united states economy became this huge load stone people were coming across in much larger numbers. actually what has happened, as we have tightened our enforce. and tightened security at the border, people who are here illegally can't go back to their native country which is mainly mexico. or they are afraid if they go back they won't be able to get back here. so they stay here. so now we have what's come to a general consensus of 11 million illegal ail yens in a limbo. they have broken the law. they are afraid to leave because they can't go back. and the question before the congress and administration is how do you deal with this? this is what all those proposals are that are being circulated. host: texas caller. guest: i say put the u.s. guard and reeverybody ises on the border and do the same thing we do in ask and we start protecting america instead of the rest of the world. guest: it's interesting because the guard has been on the border for some years. it was cal

reagan signed a bill. supposedly enforcement and ham necessity there was only amnesty. think if republicans stick to that position, which i think is a very, very consensual one, will command a very large majority. >> the president can easily confuse that by saying i want border patrol. look at the things that have improved since i have been president. it has. primarily the recession drove a lot of workers back and people didn't take the chance anymore. he can say lip service to just like ronald reagan did, there is no problem with that. doing what we should do down there. border patrol crossings are down, he can take that right apray from the republicans, can he not? >> what is he going to say? i'm going to give you another recession? everybody understands it's the recession that has caused a temporary. >> bill: you think everybody understands that? >> i think people understand it's a temporary lull and that there is no serious enforcement and in fact the way the president has structured his reform, legalization on day one, which will never be revoked. i think all the r

not amnesty the way president reagan did in 1986 but a pathway where they can earn it.born in mexico. he became a legal resident. he then became a naturalized citizen. he followed the process. but you can't make it so difficult they give up and say i'm not going to come over here and i'm going to cross the desert or the river in texas and just do it this way and pay some coyote some money and risk my life because the system doesn't work. it has to be efficient. it's got to be fair. it's got to be something that works for everybody. >> bill: i want to come back to where you started congressman. republicans need this. it seems to me that there's some belief on the part of republicans that all they need to do is vote for immigration reform and latinos are just going to flock to the republican party and elect republicans all over the place because this is going to prove that they are there in support of the latino community. is it going to be that easy? >> no way. if you look at it, let's go back to the election date. last november election date. if you recall right be befo

in 1984 mondale beat reagan among latinos 24%. in 1988, after the amnestys beats george h.w. bush by 39%. so the swing towards democrats was plus 15% in between the two elections in which the amnesty program happened. >> which was signed by a republican president and had strong support from republicans in congress. pat buchanan supported that particular amnesty. why would legislation signed by a democratic president really earn the undying loyalty of these voters to the republican party? >> aaron? >> look, the hispanic population is not modelled on that. you can't say we're going to pass a bill and they're all going to come along. we're very diverse. i come from a rural community, and rural people in my state are conservative. you have second, third, fourth, fifth, 12th generation hispanics living in this country, and they're all very, very different. . most of the young hispanics live in san antonio who are third and fourth generation only speak english, they don't speak spanish. if you find hispanics third and fourth generatijegeneration ear $40,000 a yea

amnesty. i would do exactly what ronald reagan. bill: right now? >> yeah. i would do exactly what ronald reagan did. >> what reagan did, didn't fix the problem. >> i don't, honestly understand what the complaint is here by republicans that the president is putting together a plan on the off chance that congress can't get something done. congress has shown that they're actually pretty bad at getting things done. so i think it is smart for the president to have something to, have a plan. this is not the final plan. so it is a draft plan. and i think it is a responsible thing for them to be doing. bill: first review was not favorable. i have to go. thanks for coming in on a holiday. doa was the operative acronym out of rubio and think that is the way this one is headed. more to come, tony, thank you, kirsten as well. 18 past the hour. jamie has a bit more now. jamie: meanwhile senator rubio's infamous water-drinking moment to the republican response for state of the union it has become a unique opportunity for him, since taking that sip, senator rubio has sold

may, indeed, become the next reagan, but the more important question is whether ryingan would be accepted in the modern republican party. >> i believe in the idea of amnestyhose who have put down roots and who have lived here even though some time back they may have entered illegally. marco rubio is on the cover of your magazine. do you think he can be the man to lead the republican horse to water on immigration even if it doesn't really want to drink? >> yeah, that's our premise. we call him the republican savior on the cover. he tweeted this morning to say in his view there's just one savior, and that's jesus christ, but we're -- >> he tweeted that, actually. >> a partisan angle on the word. >> there goes the jewish vote. >> shelly adelson, did you see this? >> he is a great face for it, and the republican party needs that more than anything else. i mean, that's been the talk of the party since the election. >> but is it just a -- i mean, michael, you had an interview, a famous interview in "gq" where you asked him about the age of the earth, and he said famously, i'm not a scientist man. personally what i believe is a slogan that should have launched 1

our situation, we did the reagan amnesty but we made no provision to meet the economic or familial needs of the country. like 80% or 90% of them, they are here without their papers. you can verify they are not properly here and american agriculture would collapse. what we need to do is provide a system that will actually meet our needs both in the economy whether it is high tech or agriculture and also respect the need for american families to be united. it is now my belief that my son and daughter are part of my nuclear family. i think that is true for americans that have sons and daughters abroad. i think it would be such a tragedy if we became sidetracked on whether or not the 11 million here that respond to the help wanted sign can never become right with the law and never have the aspiration to become an american. we're not talking about giving his citizenship to everybody. what we're saying is, over time, you might gain legal permanent residency in the united states. and if you learn everything there is to know about the american government, learn english so well that you can pass