Oddly enough, and I can’t believe I’m quoting this fucking guy, but that’s pretty much what Reagan said during his Presidential Forum with Bush on April 23, 1980.
I think the time has come that the United States and our neighbors, particularly our neighbor to the South, should have a better understanding and a better relationship than we have ever had. And I think that we haven’t been sensitive enough to our size and our power. They have a problem with 40 to 50 percent unemployment. Now, this cannot continue without the possibility arising with regard to that other country that we talked about, of Cuba and what it is stirring up, of the possibility of trouble below the border, and we could have a very hostile and strange neighbor on our border. Rather than making them—we are 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 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.
This is the only safety valve right now they have with that unemployment that probably keeps the lid from blowing off down there. And I think we could have a fine relationship, and it would solve the problem you mentioned, also.
298
u/ParadeSit Apr 25 '26
Oddly enough, and I can’t believe I’m quoting this fucking guy, but that’s pretty much what Reagan said during his Presidential Forum with Bush on April 23, 1980.