What Key Immigration Policy Did Reagan Begin, and Bush I and Obama Continue?

The answer is deferred deportation for minors—called DACA by an Obama executive order, and unnamed by the earlier presidents.

But first, some context. News outlets are reporting that the accused killer of Mollie Tibbetts is a 24 year-old man who came to the U.S. unlawfully seven years ago—and his employment status was verified in error, exposing a flaw in the database. My point? He apparently came here as a minor—and he is President Trump’s latest illustration of the inherent safety risk posed by “illegal immigrants.”

President Reagan took a different view of “illegal immigrants,” especially kids. In October 1987, President Reagan legalized the presence of children who illegally immigrated with their families. Under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, Congress legalized the presence of some children but not “split-eligibility” families. Lawmakers attempted to correct this problem but were defeated by anti-immigration colleagues who feared a “second amnesty.”

Reagan’s administration stated a policy of “deferral”— it would not, for the present time, deport children, where one parent could establish legal presence (under an amnesty law) but the other parent could not qualify. Back then, it was called “family values.”

In 1989, President Bush I’s administration issued a memorandum called “Family Fairness: Guidelines for Voluntary Departure for the Ineligible Spouses and Children of Legalized Aliens (Feb. 2, 1990) (the McNary Memo).” 
Pause. Notice that President Bush used the term "ineligible" instead of "illegal"? It's important.
The Bush I policy stated that deportation would be deferred for ineligible aliens who had not been convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors. 
A related policy allowed these minors to be authorized to work in the U.S., if old enough to do so.

Fast-forward to June 2012. President Obama announced the DACA policy—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It built directly off the “family values” platform that President Reagan started and President Bush expanded.

Mollie Tibbetts’ family has suffered an incalculable loss. Whether her apparent murder is reason enough to end the “family values” policy of “deferred deportation” is for readers to decide. My view coincides with President Bush, who stated “support for the family as the essential unit of society and respect for the family unit.” I also applaud the statement of policy by the INS Commissioner under Bush I, gary McNary, who said: “We can enforce the law humanely… To split families encourages further violations of the law as they reunite.”