Some immigration control advocates were pleased by his more hard-line positions.
Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the governor "hit the truth" in his comments about the 1986 amnesty and the government's failure to enforce the law against employers who hired illegal immigrants.
"He was absolutely right," Mehlman said. "People who broke the law got rewarded, and the American people got a bunch of broken promises."
But the discussions suggest that the governor's views on immigration are mixed and sometimes difficult to categorize.
He denigrated, for instance, the idea of sending hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers back to Mexico and called the 700-mile border fence recently approved by Congress "ridiculous."
"We all know a 12-foot fence has never stopped anybody, because you can build tunnels," he said.
He compared the fence with the Berlin Wall, saying that the United States should not be looking at Mexico as an enemy.
"These are our trading partners," he said. "All of a sudden you're building a wall for a specific group of people, which are the people that are wanting to come over here. Are those necessarily criminals? No."
Schwarzenegger also critiqued guest-worker proposals and said he supported a path to earned legalization for undocumented immigrants.
"The governor seemed to be trying to work out a position for himself" in his taped conversation, said Harry Pachon, president of USC's Tomas Rivera Policy Institute.
Pachon said the governor's opinions are shared by many Californians.
"He reflects a segment of the California electorate that is really frustrated and puzzled with the immigration issue," Pachon said. "The answers aren't easy."
The governor's frankness is what worries immigrant rights groups, which say they now have a much clearer view of his true beliefs.
At one point, to illustrate immigrants' lack of assimilation, he described a shopping mall in Lynwood called Plaza Mexico.
"Literally I felt I was in Mexico City," he said. "Everyone only spoke Spanish, every shop was in Spanish, every sign was in Spanish. They create a Mexico within California."
And he compared the United States with a home where some guests help out and others don't.
"Look, you want to come in here as a guest ... then behave as if you are a guest," he said. "But what do we see in return? We see protesters carrying the Mexican flag.... And stepping on the American flag and speaking in Spanish and talking about, 'We are here, and we're going to stay.' "
