SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Barry Jagoda lives in La Jolla, California, a long way from Washington D.C., where he worked with former President Jimmy Carter in the late 70s.
On Monday morning, during a conversation with KSWB’s Juliette Vara, Jagoda fondly recalled his tenure as a television and news adviser to Carter.
He described how Carter treated everyone with respect, but “not the kind of guy you could pull a fast one on, he was very smart and a very tough boss.”
Jagoda has written a book about his time with Carter and policies the president helped implement, including strategies dealing with the border and immigration.
“There were people from particular Latin and South American (countries) and they wanted to find a refuge into the United States, he was open to that,” Jagoda said.
Jagoda described how Carter wanted to find a way to bring undocumented migrants into mainstream America.
“He had been a farmer and he knew that crops just didn’t grow by themselves,” he said.
Jagoda said Carter wanted to offer permanent legal residency to workers who had come to the U.S. before 1970 and temporary status to those who arrived after 1977.
It was never ratified during the Carter administration, although something very similar was signed into law when President Ronald Reagan offered amnesty to more than 4 million undocumented immigrants during his time in office.
“Jimmy Carter saw a good deal in the Statue of Liberty,” Jagoda said.
Carter is also credited with increasing the number of refugees from Southeast Asia, in particular Vietnam, from 17,400 to 50,000 per year.
He was also the first president to institute penalties for employers who hired undocumented workers.
“Carter was also a stickler for the law, our borders were our borders,” Jagoda said.
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