# We Already Tried This Deal. It Was Called 1986.

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/we-already-tried-this-deal-it-was-called-1986/
- Published: 2026-11-11T14:30:07+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-11T16:52:40+00:00
- Original publisher: The Daily Caller (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://dailycaller.com/2026/11/11/scott-mechkowski-ice-dhs-amnesty-trump-markwayne-mullin
- Topics: Politics

## Key points

- Trump floated legal status, then said his policy had not changed.
- IRCA legalised about 2.7 million people in the 1980s.
- A former ICE official warns that promised enforcement fell short.

## Summary

President Trump suggested working with Congress on legal status for long-settled undocumented migrants, then said the next day that he opposed amnesty and had not changed his policy. The article’s author, a former senior ICE official, argues that Congress should consider the record of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act before pursuing a similar deal.

Under IRCA, about three million people applied for legalisation and roughly 2.7 million received green cards; promised border security and employer enforcement, the author says, did not follow effectively. He says the undocumented population later exceeded 11 million by 2013, with some current estimates reaching 22 million. The article also links the concentration of beneficiaries in California and other states to long-term political change, while acknowledging other factors shaped California’s shift; it notes that eight Republican co-sponsors of the Dignity Act lost their seats in the recent election.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.