“In 1986 Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to 3 million people,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told a Martin County Republican Women’s group in 2009, “You know what happened, in addition to becoming 11 million a decade later? There were people trying to enter the country legally, who had done the paperwork, who were here legally, who were going through the process, who claimed, all of a sudden, ‘No, no no no , I’m illegal.’ Because it was easier to do the amnesty program than it was to do the legal process.”

“I think he did it for the right reasons, but I think it ended up working the wrong way,” Rubio said of Reagan’s 1986 amnesty plan. Rubio is right: Ronald Reagan’s 1986 amnesty was a disaster for both the country and the party. Problem is, Rubio’s current amnesty plan looks to be heading down the exact same path.