Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), , also Simpson-Mazzoli Act, is an Act of Congress

Law of the United States

The law of the United States consists of many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States...

which reformed United States immigration law.

In brief the act:

required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status.
made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants.
granted amnesty to certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants.
granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously.

Legislative background and description

Romano L. Mazzoli

Romano L. "Ron" Mazzoli represented Kentucky's Third Congressional District Romano L. "Ron" Mazzoli (born November 2, 1932, in Louisville, Kentucky) represented Kentucky's Third Congressional District Romano L. "Ron" Mazzoli (born November 2, 1932, in Louisville, Kentucky) represented Kentucky's...

was a Democratic representative from Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

and Alan K. Simpson

Alan K. Simpson

Alan Kooi Simpson is an American politician who served from 1979 to 1997 as a United States Senator from Wyoming as a member of the Republican Party. His father, Milward L. Simpson, was also a member of the U.S...

was a Republican senator from Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

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

Theodore Hesburgh

The Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh, CSC, STD , a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, is President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. He is the namesake for TIAA-CREF's Hesburgh Award....

, then President of the University of Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...

.

The law criminalized the act of knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant and established financial and other penalties for those employing illegal immigrants under the theory that low prospects for employment

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

would reduce undocumented immigration. It introduced the I-9 form

I-9 (form)

The Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 is a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services form. It is used by an employer to verify an employee's identity and to establish that the worker is eligible to accept employment in the United States....

to ensure that all employees presented documentary proof of their legal eligibility to accept employment in the United States.

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 Judiciary Committees. 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 of Commerce persistently opposed sanctions against employers.

The second Simpson-Mazzoli Bill finally passed both houses 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.

"The following year, Sen. Simpson reintroduced the bill that Congressional opponents were now calling 'The Monster from the Blue Lagoon' because of its eerie ability to rise from the dead. By September, this Senate version had already passed...."

The act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

. An estimated 3 million illegal aliens received amnesty under the act. A May 26, 2006 New York Times article arrived at the figure 2.8 million: 1.7 million under a general amnesty, plus 90% of the 1.3 million that applied under a special program for agricultural workers.http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/washington/23amnesty.html

Effect upon the labor market

According to one study, the IRCA caused some employers to discriminate against workers who appeared foreign, resulting in a small reduction in overall Hispanic employment. There is no statistical evidence that a reduction in employment correlated to unemployment in the economy as a whole or was separate from the general unemployment population statistics. Another study stated that if hired, wages were being lowered to compensate employers for the perceived risk of hiring foreigners.

The hiring process also changed as employers turned to indirect hiring through subcontractors. "Under a subcontracting agreement, a U.S. citizen or resident alien contractually agrees with an employer to provide a specific number of workers for a certain period of time to undertake a defined task at a fixed rate of pay per worker". "By using a subcontractor the firm is not held liable since the workers are not employees. The use of a subcontractor decreases a worker's wages since a portion is kept by the subcontractor. This indirect hiring is imposed on everyone regardless of legality".

External links

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Legislative background and description

Effect upon the labor market

See also

External links