The Arizona Republic has chosen to publish a thorough and reasonable survey of the 1986 Amnesty.

The amnesty program that tried and failed –by Daniel Gonzalez October 8 2006

The law signed 20 years ago this November by President Ronald Reagan was supposed to put an end to illegal immigration. It granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants, beefed up security along the U.S.-Mexican border and, for the first time, tried to punish employers of unlawful workers. The rationale was that illegal immigration would stop for good if the job magnet was cut off.

But employer sanctions never fully materialized, and illegal immigration soared… President Reagan described the employer sanctions as the bill’s “keystone.” The sanctions created fines for knowingly hiring unauthorized workers and criminal penalties for repeat offenders…

The government never followed through on the promise to crack down on employers. The government at times tried to come down hard, but then backed off after outcries from employers and powerful lawmakers. That’s what happened in the late 1990s, when immigration investigators targeted the onion industry in Georgia and the meatpacking industry in Nebraska… While employers faced fines or even criminal penalties if they hired unauthorized workers, some employers faced discrimination lawsuits for firing workers they thought might be undocumented. The result was a huge loophole

Purists might detect an anti action animus in the publishing of this essay, and an important failure to grasp the significance of the 1965 Immigration reform disaster. A superficial reading could induce defeatism. But it is actually a good account of the implementation of actual, as opposed to declared, national policy.

Separately, the Champagne –cooling victory celebration preparations for the Arizona 8th District race continue to gear up. Reuters has produced an exultant piece:

Arizona race a test for tough immigration stance - by Tim Gaynor Reuters October 8 2006
reproduced (unusually) in its entirety by The Washington Post

The Republican National Committee pulled $1 million in funding from Graf’s war chest in recent days, while retiring Republican moderate Rep. Jim Kolbe has withheld his endorsement.

What might happen if the $1 million were spent? Very clearly, this is a victory the Republican Establishment does not want.