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Reagan Sells Obama’s Immigration Action

Posted on
November 29, 2014
by Agree Staff
The Democrat PAC, Americans United for Change, continues to function as wingman in promoting President Obama's immigration action. The PAC's first ad following the presidential announcement charged Speaker John Boehner with flip-flopping. The second ad from Americans United may really rile up Republicans: it uses the words of President Ronald Reagan to argue for Obama's policy.

Embrace Reagan, Not "Amnesty"

Reagan famously signed a 1986 immigration law that legalized undocumented workers who had arrived in America before 1982. But the Americans United ad doesn't use Reagan footage from the debate around that legislation. Why? Probably because Reagan explicitly embraced "amnesty," and that word has since become political poison.

Instead, the ad uses footage from Reagan's January 1989 farewell address that included some abstract language that applies to immigrants.

Framing the video clip inside an 1980s-era tube television, Reagan states, "I've spoken of the shining city all my political life ... in my mind it was a tall, proud city ... And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here."

Is Obama's Immigration Action Just Like Reagan?

The TV image flips to Obama's East Room address, as if it's an extension of Reagan's: "That’s the legacy we must leave for those who are yet to come."

Text on screen gives a blunt defense to Obama's end run-around Congress: "When Congress Refuses To Act, Presidents Must Lead." By using the plural, the ad is suggesting Obama has acted in similar fashion to Reagan. Defenders of Obama note that Reagan issued an executive order in 1987 that expanded the reach of the 1986 law as congressional fixes faltered. Critics of Obama counter that Reagan was acting in the spirit of a bipartisan law just passed, not in the absence of a new law.

So far, opponents of the action haven't taken to the airwaves, or the Internet, with ads as congressional Republicans struggle to devise a legislative response. Until then, supporters will have a freer hand in portraying Obama's action as Reagan-esque.
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