The recent bipartisan Senate proposal to reform the nation's immigration system isn't the first time a large comprehensive immigration reform package has been proposed in recent memory. The U.S. has had three major immigration packages over the past 30 years.
Although it's impossible to be completely accurate on estimates of the illegal-immigrant population, studies show a current population around 11 million. In 1980, this figure was estimated to be around 3 million.
Here's a brief history of the most recent laws passed regarding immigration and how they fared:
The Immigration and Control Act of 1986
This law, signed by President Ronald Reagan, is very similar to proposals being floated by both President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of Senators. Items included:
- Requiring employers to attest to their employees' immigration status.
- Making it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit unauthorized immigrants.
- Legalizing certain seasonal agricultural illegal immigrants.
- Illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982, and had resided there continuously were granted citizenship as long as they paid a fine, back taxes, and admitted guilt.
Here's what happened, according to the Migration Policy Institute:
First, about 3 million immigrants living in the U.S. at the time were subsequently granted citizenship.
Enforcement was beefed up with a 50 percent increase in Border Patrol. This led to a roughly 23 percent spike in border arrests in the two years following the law. However, the employer provisions requiring citizenship proof from employees gave loose accommodations, requiring them to accept any document that "reasonably appears on its face to be genuine." This led to a thriving false document industry, and government enforcement of employers was rather lax.
The Immigration Act of 1990
The focus of this act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, helped strengthen legal avenues of immigration. Changes included:
- Revision of all grounds for exclusion and deportation
- Authorization of temporary protected status to aliens of designated countries
- Revision and establishment of new non immigrant admission categories
- Revision and extension of the Visa Waiver Pilot Program
- Revision of naturalization authority and requirements.
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996
Signed by President Bill Clinton, this law offered some of the most sweeping changes to immigration law in since 1986. The largest focus was on beefing up border security, and the law also offered more stringent enforcement measures to counter the flow of illegal immigrants. Here are the big items:
- Doubled the number of border patrol agents to 10,000 over five years and required building a fourteen-mile long fence along the Mexican border.
- Placed big penalties on people who help smuggle illegal immigrants or provide them with false documents.
- Radically expanded the types of offenses that could result in an immigrant being detained or deported.
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