The last time we've elected an anti-amnesty POTUS was Nixon.

[RR1997]

As we all know, Obama, Clinton, and Carter are pro-amnesty.

As most of us know, Bush Jr was also pro-amnesty. It's why he won 45% of the Hispanic vote in 2004 (Romney's Hispanic support was in the mid 20's). He campaigned on the fact that he was pro-amnesty and the base didn't care. The base didn't agree with him on this issue, but they still supported him. Now a days if a candidate is pro-amnesty, he is torn into pieces by the base, and the candidate would have no chance of winning. The base didn't care about amnesty 10-15 years ago. Now a days it's the only issue the GOP base even cares about. The base forced Jeb and Rubio to move right on the issue of immigration. It's like the GOP is devolving on issues like this. It's really sad.

Reagan was also pro-amnesty.
https://youtu.be/t0tRiy8EBWc
https://youtu.be/Ednq_vKPdQE

Reagan claimed that he supported amnesty for illegal aliens. Reagan also signed an immigration bill that gave amnesty to all illegal aliens who arrived before 1982. IIRC, Reagan gave amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, more than Obama/Bush/Clinton/Bush/Carter/etc. The immigration revolution started with Reagan. Bush Sr. was also pro-amnesty.

Nixon was a anti-amnesty. This means that we haven't had an anti-amnesty POTUS in 41 years.

Will we have an anti-amnesty POTUS in 2017? Also, why does amnesty matter to the GOP base so much now a days? Why didn't it matter to them 10-15 years ago?

[RR1997]

I love how the OP apparently forgot that Gerald Ford was president.

Was he pro amnesty?

I didn't forget him. I just couldn't find any statements about immigration from Ford, so I decided to ignore him. Besides, he wasn't technically elected POTUS either, so I'll change the title from "The last time we've had an anti-immigration POTUS was Nixon" to "The last time we've elected an anti-immigration POTUS was Nixon." Idk if Ford was pro-amnesty or anti-amnesty.