[UPDATED WITH REID'S RECENT COMMENTS. ALSO: ASK REID THIS QUESTION]

On August 5, 1993, Harry Reid introduced the "Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993", an anti-illegal immigration bill that would also have greatly reduced legal immigration. It would have made Tom Tancredo (and me) proud.

Flash forward to 2006 (link) where Reid apologized for the bill, no doubt because he thought it was in his best political interests:

Mr. Reid yesterday disavowed that bill and his statements in support of it. And in an unusual, rambling confession on the floor of the Senate yesterday, he said it was the "low point" of his career.

A few days after introducing the bill in August 1993, Mr. Reid said in a near whisper as many senators looked on in amazement, his wife -- the daughter of immigrants -- confronted him after a meeting in Las Vegas and scolded him about his anti-immigrant views. She and other associates of his "pointed out the errors of my way" and ever since, Mr. Reid said, he's favored a more inclusive approach to immigration reform.

His errant ways, he said, "for which I'm so apologetic to my family, mostly lasted about a week or two."

But seven months later, Mr. Reid introduced his bill again, according to Senate records. That bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee in March 1994.

Later that summer, he testified before the Judiciary Committee and advocated cutting legal immigration from 1 million people annually to 325,000.

"A gluttonous admission of new people every year will have a pernicious effect on our infrastructure and our environment," Mr. Reid said, according to Associated Press reports at the time.

"We cannot continue to feed, clothe, house, educate and employ unlimited new populations," States News Service quoted him saying.

Mr. Reid's office said last night that his conversion occurred after the second time he introduced his bill but couldn't give an exact time line.

UPDATE: Reid is making pandering lemonade out of what should be a big bunch of lemons because his opponents are stressing the flip-flop aspects rather than stressing out how his bill was right in the first place. From the post "It's True: Sen. Reid Changed His Position on Immigration/Took to US Senate floor years ago and called 1993 legislation “the biggest mistake I ever made" (harryreid.com/index.php/news/release/
its_true_sen._reid_changed_his_position_on_immigration):

IT’S TRUE -- HARRY REID CHANGED HIS STANCE ON IMMIGRATION FROM 1993 LEGISLATION. WHEN CONFRONTED, HE WENT TO FLOOR, ADMITTED WHAT HE CALLED AN ENORMOUS MISTAKE, AND EXPLAINED HIMSELF

April 2006: Reid Described “The Biggest Mistake I Ever Made” In Introducing Anti-Immigrant Legislation. In April 2006, Senator Reid went to the floor to respond to criticism of his immigration stance. He said, “I don't want this to be true confessions, but I want to relate to the Senate that the biggest mistake I ever made, the largest error I ever made was 15 or 18 years ago, as a Member of the U.S. Congress, when, with my chief of staff, my dear friend Reynaldo Martinez … A group of people came and talked to us and convinced us that the thing to do would be to close the borders between Mexico and the United States; in effect, stop people from coming across our borders to the United States … I introduced legislation. My little wife is 5 feet tall. We have been together for soon to be 50 years. As I said here on the floor a few days ago, her father was born in Russia. He was run out of Russia. His name was Goldfarb, his family. They were Jewish. My wife heard that I had done this. She does not interfere with my legislation. Only when I ask her does she get involved in what I am doing. I didn't ask her about this. She, in effect, said: I can't believe that you have done it. But I had done it.” [Reid Floor Speech, 4/5/06]

Reid Described Backlash From Friends And Constituents In Nevada’s Hispanic Community: “To compound this, I held a meeting a day or two after being confronted by my wife, a meeting in Las Vegas. It was a townhall meeting to explain this travesty that I called legislation. My friend, Judge John Mendoza, was there, somebody who, when I lost my Senate race in 1974 by 524 votes, spent all night with me consoling me, but he was in that audience. Larry Luna, Larry Mason, Isabelle Pfeiffer, people I had not talked to about this, in addition to my wife, pointed out the errors of my way. I have done everything since that meeting in Las Vegas, in conversation with my wife, to undo my embarrassment.” [Reid Floor Speech, 4/5/06]

Reid Called His Past Immigration Stance “The Low Point Of My Governmental Career,” Explained His Belief In The Need For Comprehensive Reform: “I have nothing against my friend, the junior Senator from Alabama, for bringing up what I had said those many years ago today on the Senate floor. I have no problem with that at all. But I do want to tell him and the rest of my friends in the Senate, that is a low point of my legislative career, the low point of my governmental career. That is why I believe we need comprehensive immigration reform today. People in America are counting on us to move forward with comprehensive immigration reform. They recognize that this country's national security depends on securing our borders and fixing our immigration system. They all want us to do this, Democrats and Republicans, to come together and do this.” [Reid Floor Speech, 4/5/06]

If you want to do something highly effective, go to one of Reid's appearances and ask him this question.