PoliticsPolitics and GovernmentImmigrationRepublican Party

Reagan Slams Border Fence, Bush Defends Undocumented ‘Good People’ In 1980 Debate

Old footage of the two future presidents offers a stark contrast to the GOP of today.
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By 

Overnight Editor, HuffPost

A Republican primary debate clip from the 1980 presidential campaign resurfaced this week, and it sounds completely different from the GOP of 2019.

In the footage, future presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush spoke with sympathy about the plight of undocumented immigrants and offered ways to welcome them. Reagan even slapped down the idea of a border fence and said he’d like to “open the border both ways” while Bush praised the undocumented as “honorable, decent, family-loving people.”

Reagan would go on to defeat Bush in the primaries and become America’s 40th president. Bush would serve as Reagan’s vice president, then become the commander-in-chief in 1989. 

During the debate, a member of the audience asked the candidates about undocumented immigrants attending U.S. public schools. Bush said he wanted a solution “so sensitive and so understanding” to both labor needs and human needs. He also said “reluctantly” that anyone in the country should get “whatever it is that their society is giving to their neighbors.”

Bush also became emotional over the notion of an undocumented child who may not be able to attend school.

“These are good people, strong people,” Bush said. “Part of my family is Mexican.” 

Reagan called for a “better understanding and better relationship” with neighbors such as Mexico.

“I think that we haven’t been sensitive enough to our size and our power,” Reagan said, adding:

“Rather than talking about putting up a fence, why don’t we work out some recognition of our mutual problems, make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then while they’re working and earning here they pay taxes here? And when they want to go back, they can go back, and they can cross. And open the border both ways by understanding their problems.”

See the full clip above. 

The debate video, which has gone viral from time to time in the past, was shared this week by Qasim Rashid, Democratic state senate candidate in Virginia. 

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Before You Go

7 Ways To Get Around The Border Fence
Walk across a point of entry(01 of07)
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Have two feet? Use the to walk across the border. The fence won't present a problem. (credit:NOGALES, MEXICO - JULY 7: Mexican nationals walk with their luggage through the U.S-Mexico border on July 7, 2012 in Nogales, Mexico. The president-elect of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, stated that he wants to expand his country's drug-war partnership wi)
Ride across in a car(02 of07)
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Don't feel like walking? No worries -- hop into an automobile. (credit:BROWNSVILLE TX - MAY 21: Cars drive from Matomoros, Mexico (L), across the U.S.-Mexico border at the Rio Grande on May 21, 2013 into Brownsville, Texas. The area is active for legal international commerce as well as drug smugglers bringing their product )
Sail in a boat!(03 of07)
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Sure, maybe not this boat. But some kind of boat. (credit:AP)
Take a plane(04 of07)
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If all that walking/driving/boating stuff seems to passé for your modern tastes, consider flying over the double-border fence. (credit:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Flickr" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5ce4c8d4e4b0d513447c51e7" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="2" data-vars-position-in-unit="7">Flickr</a>:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/62091376@N03/9287350368" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Erik Daniel Drost" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5ce4c8d4e4b0d513447c51e7" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/photos/62091376@N03/9287350368" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="3" data-vars-position-in-unit="8">Erik Daniel Drost</a>)
Climb through border hole(05 of07)
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We know what you're thinking -- sure, getting around the border fence is easy if you're fortunate enough to get a U.S. visa. But what if you can't. One way to skirt the problem: the border's full of holes. (credit:CAMPO, CA - JULY 29: A hole has been cut in the US-Mexico border fence where Border Patrol agents are carrying out special operations following the first fatal shooting of a US Border Patrol agent in more than a decade on July 29, 2009 near the rural tow)
Climb over the fence(06 of07)
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry dismissed the logic of expanding the border fence during the GOP presidential primary debates, saying that it would accomplish little beyond bolstering the "35-foot ladder business." (credit:CAMPO, CA - JULY 19: Volunteers look over the US-Mexico border fence to see how illegal border crossers may jump the fence before going on the nightly patrol by citizen volunteers searching for people crossing into the US illegally from Mexico on July 19)
Borrow a tunnel(07 of07)
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While tunneling under the border fence is a method more commonly used by drug traffickers than migrants, we do know that it's possible. (credit:APIn this undated photo provided by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, shows a 240-yard, a complete and fully operational drug smuggling tunnel, from the U.S. side of the tunnerl, that ran from a small business in Arizona to an ice plant o)
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