Episode 2: Ronald Reagan and Immigration Reform

(photo courtesy of Library of Congress)

The statue of President Ronald Reagan at Reagan National Airport.

Ronald Reagan was the president who signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 - the last time Congress passed major immigration reform.

An estimated two million undocumented immigrants were granted amnesty, offered an opportunity to become citizens. It wasn’t automatic. You had to provide paperwork that you had lived and worked in the U.S. for at least a decade, stayed out of legal trouble, and never took money from the government.

It was one of the first stories Kitty Felde covered as a public radio reporter. She followed a young couple as they went through the legalization process. Oscar and Martha brought a wheelbarrow full of paper to their interview to prove their eligibility. Martha had to take the citizenship test twice. But in the end, Oscar announced that he had finally achieved the American dream: “I have my wife, I have my house, I have my bird.” Bird? Well, it was HIS version of the American dream.

Kitty revisited Oscar and Martha many years later. Here’s that story.

Congress has tried nearly every year to pass another comprehensive immigration reform measure. So far, it has failed.

Here’s the fiction inspired by the facts:

Fina’s grandmother arrives in Washington and the first thing she wants is a picture with the statue of Ronald Reagan.

ABUELITA: It’s because of him that I became an American citizen and your father became a congressman.