CHICAGO (WLS) — To end the chaos going on with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Alderman Ray Lopez says it’s time for President Donald Trump to take a page out of Republican President Ronald Reagan’s immigration playbook and offer amnesty.

Francisco Ortega lived in Chicago without legal papers for 11 years before President Reagan in 1986 gave the Mexican immigrant and millions of others the opportunity of a lifetime: United States citizenship.

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“Since then, I’ve been having a good, good life here. I work for long time, and now I’m retired. But still, my family is in good, good condition. They don’t have no problems or any kind,” Ortega said.

Citizenship allowed Ortega and his family to not only work, but get educations and buy homes: all contributions to the American economy. That was part of Reagan’s motivation, when almost 40 years ago he signed the bipartisan Immigration Reform and Control Act. The main part of the bill was granting amnesty to people living in the U.S. without legal permission who had been in-country for a few years.

“President Reagan was a big supporter of this legislation. He was the governor of a border state. He understood, you know, the needs for immigrant workers and the economy and, you know, he also wanted to broaden the base of the Republican Party,” said Fred Tsao, with Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Forty years later, the tide has turned among Republicans. As ICE continues its aggressive enforcement on the streets of Chicago, Ald. Lopez says it’s time to put an end to the chaos.

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The 15th Ward alderman has sent a letter to President Trump asking him to grant amnesty and pardons for the millions of long-term residents living in the U.S. without legal permission.

“Those individuals who have clean, clear criminal records for the last 10 years should be given a way to become citizens, a path to come out of the shadows and formally be part of our economy and our way of life,” Lopez said.

Lopez suggests charging each person $2,500 for an application. He says Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals-eligible individuals would be exempt.

“Now is the perfect time for him to rise above, take the moral high ground, as crazy as that sounds, and lead this country out of this chaos that we’re seeing right now,” Lopez said.

It’s chaos that Ortega says is completely unnecessary and unfair to hard-working residents.

“The people that don’t have legal papers are really in bad shape right now, and even they don’t want to come out of their houses. And it’s bad for the economy and everything,” Ortega said.

Ald. Lopez has yet to get a response from the president, and he doesn’t expect to

Because the immigration issue has become a political hot potato, amnesty has been talked about for years in Washington, but has never materialized since the 1980s.