Thread: IMMIGRATION REFORM AND CONTROL ACT OF 1986

Immigration Reform and ControlAct of 1986

The ImmigrationReform and Control Act (IRCA), Pub.L. 99–603,100 Stat.3445, enacted November 6, 1986, also known as the Simpson–Mazzoli Act or the Reagan Amnesty,^[1] signed into law by Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986, is an Act of Congress which reformed United States immigration law. The Act^[2]

• required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status;
• made it illegal to hire or recruit illegal immigrants knowingly;
• legalized certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants, and;
• legalized illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously with the penalty of a fine, back taxes due, and admission of guilt; candidates were required to prove that they were not guilty of crimes, that they were in the country before January 1, 1982, and that they possessed at least a minimal knowledge about U.S. history, government, and the English language.

At the time,the Immigrationand Naturalization Service estimated that about four million illegal immigrants would apply for legal status through the act and that roughly half of them would be eligible.^[3]

Romano L. Mazzoli was a Democratic representative from Kentucky and Alan K. Simpson was a Republican senator from Wyoming who chaired their respective immigration subcommittees in Congress. Their effort was assisted by the recommendations of the bipartisan Commission on Immigration Reform, chaired by Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, then President of the University of NotreDame.

The law criminalized the act of engaging in a "pattern or practice" of knowingly hiring an "unauthorized alien"^[4] and established financial and other penaltiesf or those employing illegal immigrants under the theory that low prospects for employment would reduce undocumented immigration.Regulations promulgated under the Act introduced the I-9 form to ensure that all employees presented documentary proof of their legal eligibility to accept employment in the UnitedStates.^[5]

These sanctions would apply only to employers that had more than three employees and did not make a sufficient effort to determine the legal status of their workers.

The first Simpson–Mazzoli Bill was reported out of the House and Senate JudiciaryCommittees. The bill failed to be received by the House, but civil rights advocates were concerned over the potential for abuse and discrimination against Hispanics, growers' groups rallied for additional provisions for foreign labor, and the U.S. Chamber ofCommerce persistently opposed sanctions against employers.

The second Simpson–Mazzoli Bill finally passed both chambers in 1985, but it came apart in the conference committee over the issue of cost. The year marked an important turning point for the reform effort. Employer opposition to employer sanctions began to subside, partly because of the "affirmative defense" clause in the law that explicitly released employers from any obligation to check the authenticity of workers' documents.

Also, agricultural employers shifted their focus from opposition to employer sanctions to a concerted campaign to secure alternative sources of foreign labor. As opposition to employer sanctions waned and growers' lobbying efforts for extensive temporary worker programs intensified, agricultural worker programs began to outrank employer sanctions component as the most controversial element of reform.

Reagan Executive Action

The Immigration Reform and Control Act did not address the status of children of illegal aliens who were eligible for the amnesty program. In 1987 President Reagan used his executive authority to legalize the status of minor children of parents granted amnesty under the immigration overhaul,^[6] announcing a blanket deferral of deportation for children under 18 who were living in a two-parent household with both parents legalizing, or with a single parent who was legalizing.^[7] This action affected an estimated 100,000 families.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Reform_and_Control_Act_of_1986