In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted amnesty to law-abiding immigrants living in the U.S. without documentation. This act of compassion changed the lives of 3 million people. After meeting certain criteria, immigrants were able to obtain legal status and a path to citizenship. They started businesses, opened restaurants, bought homes and sent their kids to college. It was a net plus for the economy and for the communities these new citizens supported. There was no crime wave, as President Trump would have us believe.

Now, here we are, nearly 40 years later. These same types of law-abiding immigrants live in fear of workplace raids, family separation and being abducted off the street by masked, black-shirted ICE agents. Many times, undocumented immigrants are not even deported to their home countries, but are disappeared to Third World countries or places like CECOT, a Salvadoran human warehouse that nobody leaves alive. How is that even legal?

This hateful scapegoating is not cheap. The “Big, Beautiful Bill” allocates a minimum of $168 billion to deportation enforcement, which, in FY 2025, accounted for at least two-thirds of all federal law enforcement spending.

Perhaps we should reconsider Reagan’s act of compassion and update the Immigration Reform and Control Act. And perhaps we should provide a means for law-abiding people who want a better life to legally enter the U.S. to work and live. Maybe then we could focus on affordable housing, health care and the price of eggs.

Linda Dumey
Wells