After announcing the news that President Reagan had signed the 1986 Amnesty bill into law, Dan Rather on CBS News teased a news segment that anticipated the need for another amnesty in the future.
In a segment that could easily be produced in 2014, reporter David Dow interviews an employer struggling to spot fraudulent Social Security cards. A spokesperson for the “Merchants Association” explains that the law won’t solve anything. A DREAMer shares his fears, and an illegal alien voices fears that the 1986 law won’t help her family.
Nearly 30 years later, the media now refers to illegal aliens as “undocumented,” but this short clip shows that not much has changed. In fact, Dow’s closing words proved to be an accurate prediction:
Some say the economy of the undocumented will simply be driven further underground and many aliens will stick it out waiting for another amnesty law someday that will place them in the lines of the hopeful.