Based on the reaction by Republicans to the President’s executive order for the DREAM kids — temporary relief from deportation for the children of undocumented immigrants that was announced on Friday, you’d think the act was un-American, unspeakable, a horror perpetrated on the nation. Are their memories so short? Their demigod, Ronald Reagan, actually did something more radical back in the day, but there’s radio silence on that bit of business. Steven Thrasher:

Whatever happened to the three million people Reagan granted amnesty to a quarter century ago? Did they succeed in ripping the nation to shreds, destroying American industry, and murdering gringos left and right, much as Reagan’s disciples predict would happen if such a bill would become law (or even Obama’s much more tepid stopgap executive order) today?

Actually, quite the opposite.

Those immigrants, like most who get legal status, bought homes, sent their kids to school, and participated in a record period of economic expansion and growth. In 2010, back in those halcyon days when Arizona was first debating S.B. 1070, the Voice profiled three of those immigrants and talked to them about how legal status affected (and, largely, improved) their lives, their family’s lives, and the lives of their communities.