I'm thankful because it really has been almost 3 decades since 1986 without anything happening plus more time for people who did not enter the United States before January 1, 1982 to be able to qualify for the 1986 amnesty.
Plus many who were here many years before that but didn't know about it missed out because the time to apply ran out on them. I met someone the other day who came here in 1978 but because of working two jobs, only gave him little time to sleep, did not have a tv to watch the news, no one told him, and didn't benefit from it. There are tons of people with that story.
We are lucky this is actually happening in our time