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  • 2019-01-09 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Ronald Reagan Try for Eight Years to Build a Border Wall? (en)
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  • On 21 December 2018, President Donald Trump posted an inaccurate statement on Twitter comparing his attempts to secure billions of dollars in funding for border wall construction to the efforts of former President Ronald Reagan: That same day, the federal government began a partial shutdown because President Trump and Democratic legislators in Congress could not reach agreement on an a budget. Trump wanted $5.7 billion appropriated to construct more wall structures on the U.S.-Mexico border, while Democrats refused to authorize it. The impasse resulted in a protracted closure of the federal government, with pressure mounting as government workers went without paychecks. Despite what President Trump said, former president Ronald Reagan didn't try for eight years to build a border wall along the frontier with Mexico. However, other administrations and agencies have indeed succeeded in building walls in sections, and walls and fencing already separate the U.S. from Mexico for hundreds of miles along the 2,000-mile border. Speaking to the Washington Post, Doris Meissner, who served in the Reagan administration as executive associate commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), said, There was not any discussion at the senior policy levels during the Reagan administration about fencing or a wall that I can recall. (INS was the federal immigration agency that was replaced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly known as ICE.) Reagan addressed the topic during a 23 April 1980 debate with George H.W. Bush, a Republican primary candidate who would become Reagan's vice president. When asked by an audience member if the children of illegal aliens should be allowed to attend Texas public schools free, Reagan said the issue could be resolved by providing immigrants a path to work and live in the U.S. legally. Recognizing high unemployment rates in Mexico and the threat of the Cuban influence during the Cold War, Reagan said he believed in free movement between the U.S. and Mexico for those who wanted to come to the U.S. to work: (en)
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