The starting point for our reporting on an Opinion video we published this week was an old clip of a debate between Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush that might seem unimaginable today. It was from an event in 1980, when both men were competing for the Republican nomination for president. An audience member asked the candidates whether they thought the children of undocumented immigrants should be allowed to attend public school for free. Bush went first. "I would like to see something done about the illegal alien problem that would be so sensitive and understanding about labor needs and human needs," he said, adding that undocumented immigrants should receive "what the society is giving to their neighbors." "We are creating a whole society of really honorable, decent, family-loving people that are in violation of the law; and, secondly we are exacerbating relationships with Mexico," he continued. "These are good people, strong people." Reagan wasn't going to be outdone in the compassion department. "I think the time has come that the United States and our neighbors, particularly our neighbor to the south, should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we have ever had," he began. "Why don't we work out some recognition of our mutual problems?" Reagan added, for good measure: "Open the border both ways." I first saw the clip sometime during the run-up to the 2016 primary season, as Donald Trump was sandblasting the campaign trail with anti-immigrant rhetoric. I thought it might be a prank, an early bit of A.I. high jinks. But the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum set me straight. Of course, the two candidates became running mates and the country's next two presidents. And during their presidencies, both men signed into law significant pieces of immigration legislation that had passed through Congress with bipartisan support. But similar bipartisan consensus on immigration has eluded the nation's lawmakers ever since, and a Republican debate like the one in 1980 would seem inconceivable amid the carnival of anti-immigrant bile that can be customary today. How did the parties grow so far apart on the matter? That's the question driving the Opinion video we published this week. The answer is complicated. But for starters: It's not all Trump's fault. Watch the video:
Here's what we're focusing on today:
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Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Opinion Today: How did immigration become so polarizing?
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