The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) (P.L. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3359) amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to better control unauthorized immigration. Many members of Congress felt immigration was "out of control" because legal and illegal immigration had come to account for approximately thirty to fifty percent of U.S. population growth.
Congress determined the best way to control immigration was to take away the incentive to enter the United States by preventing illegal immigrants from working or receiving government benefits. The Immigration Reform and Control Act provides sanctions for knowingly hiring an employee who is not legally authorized to work. It requires employers and states to check work authorization documents for every new employee or benefit applicant, including U.S. citizens, and to complete a related form.
Many people were concerned that employer sanctions would lead to discrimination against legal immigrants or U.S. citizens who appeared foreign. To prevent such discrimination, the IRCA imposed penalties on employers who discriminated in this manner. The new employer sanctions, however, could cause great hardships for illegal immigrants who had been living and working in the United States for many years. The IRCA provided a program for certain illegal immigrants who had lived in the United States since at least January 1, 1982, to apply to become legal residents with the right to work. A different program allowed seasonal agricultural workers to apply for legal residency. Newly legal residents could eventually become citizens.
Nonagricultural workers had to prove they had a continuous physical presence in the United States, except for brief, casual, and innocent travel abroad. The Immigration and Nationalization Service (INS) required advance permission for any travel abroad, or the immigrant would be ineligible for the legalization program. Several lawsuits contested this advance-permission regulation. The courts invalidated the regulation twelve days before the deadline to file applications for legal resident status. Many immigrants, however, had not been allowed to file applications for legalization, or had not tried to file because they had been told their travel disqualified them from the program.
Immigrants who had been prevented from filing, or had not tried to file because of the invalidated regulation sued to force the INS to accept their late applications. During this litigation Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which removed the courts's jurisdiction to decide complaints from immigrants who had not "in fact" filed a legalization application before the deadline. The constitutionality of the provision is still being litigated in 2003.
Some economic sectors, particularly agriculture, have long relied heavily on labor supplied by illegal immigrants. The IRCA provided for an increase in temporary worker visas when employers could show there were not enough legal workers able, willing, and qualified to perform the work. These provisions have been used predominantly to allow additional seasonal agricultural workers to enter the United States, but they have also been used by employers in technology and other industries.
The IRCA affects every employee in America by requiring citizens and immigrants alike to provide proof of authorization to work before starting a new job. It gave many formerly illegal immigrants the right to live and work in the United States and to eventually become U.S. citizens.
Bibliography
Briggs, Vernon M., Jr., and Stephen Moore. Still an Open Door?: U.S. Immigration Policy and the American Economy. Washington, DC: The American University Press, 1994.
Lanham, Nicholas. Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Immigration Reform. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000.
Montwieler, Nancy Humel. The Immigration Reform Law of 1986: Analysis, Text, Legislative History. Washington, DC: BNA Books, 1987.
