- Jobs lost by citizens and taken by illegal aliens, with resulting lower wages paid to illegal aliens
- Costs of services and welfare for illegal aliens and their low tax payments
- Exploitation of illegal aliens
- Social fragmentation of local communities
- The need to reestablish the power of law and the principle of U.S. sovereignty
To control illegal immigration IRCA adopted three major strategies:
- Legalization of a portion of the undocumented population (aliens in the country without legal papers), thereby reducing the number of aliens illegally resident in the United States
- Sanctions against employers who knowingly hired illegal aliens
- Additional border enforcement to impede further unlawful entries
The "Pre-1982 Cohort"
Two groups of immigrants became eligible to apply for legalization under IRCA. The largest group consisted of those who could prove they had continuously resided in the United States without authorization since January 1, 1982. This large group of aliens had entered the United States in one of two ways: (1) they could have arrived as illegal aliens before January 1, 1982; or (2) they may have been temporary visitors before January 1, 1982, with their authorized stay expiring before that date or with the government's knowledge of their unlawful status before that date. The latter category would include those who arrived legally on a tourist visa and then stayed to work and live illegally in the United States.
To adjust to the legal status of permanent resident, aliens were required to prove eligibility for admission as immigrants (with no serious criminal record and a negative test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS), and have at least a minimal understanding and knowledge of the English language and U.S. history and government. They could apply for citizenship five years from the date permanent resident status was granted. Illegal aliens who did not apply for residence could no longer remain in the United States and adjust to permanent resident status unless they were immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.
TABLE 2.1
Effects of Immigration Reform and Control Act legalization through 2001
| Applicants for temporary residence | Applicants granted permanent residence | Percent of applicants granted permanent residence | Applicants who naturalized | Naturalized as a percentage of applicants granted permanent residence | |
| Category of admission | (1) | (2) | (3)=(1)/(2) | (4) | (5)=(2)/(4) |
| Total | 3,040,475 | 2,688,730 | 88% | 889,033 | 33% |
| Legalization applicants | |||||
| Total | 1,763,434 | 1,595,766 | 90% | 634,456 | 40% |
| Entered illegally prior to 1/1/1982 | 1,444,925 | 1,312,058 | 91% | 480,871 | 37% |
| Overstayed nonimmigrant visa prior to 1/1/1982 | 311,071 | 277,337 | 89% | 149,676 | 54% |
| Blanket enforced voluntary departure/unknown | 7,438 | 6,371 | 86% | 3,909 | 61% |
| SAW applicants | |||||
| Total | 1,277,041 | 1,092,964 | 86% | 254,577 | 23% |
| Group I seasonal agricultural workers 1984–86 | 67,308 | 59,975 | 89% | 12,124 | 20% |
| Group II seasonal agricultural workers in 1986 | 1,209,733 | 1,032,989 | 85% | 242,453 | 23% |
| Unknown | 473 | — | — | — | — |
Special Agricultural Workers (SAWs)
The second group of immigrants to become eligible to apply for legalization under IRCA were referred to as Special Agricultural Workers (SAWs). This category was created because many fruit and vegetable farmers feared they would lose their workers, many of whom were illegal aliens, if the IRCA provisions regarding length of continuous residence were applied to seasonal laborers. Most of these workers were migrants who returned home to live in Mexico when there was no work available in the fields. The SAW program permitted aliens who had performed labor in perishable agricultural commodities for a minimum of ninety days between May 1985 and May 1986 to apply for legalization.
HOW MANY WERE LEGALIZED?
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimated that three to five million illegal aliens were living in the United States in 1986. As shown in Table 2.1, more than three million aliens applied for temporary residence status under IRCA. Nearly 2.7 million (88%) of these applicants were eventually approved for permanent residence. By 2001, one-third (889,033) of these applicants had become naturalized citizens.
PROFILE OF THE LEGALIZED POPULATION.
A majority (75%) of applicants under IRCA provisions were born in Mexico according to the INS. Table 2.1 shows that by 2001 a higher percentage of pre-1982 entrants (40%) had been naturalized than had SAW applicants (23%). According to Nancy Rytina in "IRCA Legalization Effects: Lawful Permanent Residence and Naturalization through 2001" (paper presented at the conference The Effects of Immigrant Legalization Programs on the United States, Bethesda, Maryland, October 25, 2002), more of the pre-1982 entrants came to America with the intention of naturalizing, were better educated, and had a better grasp of the English language than the SAWs.
IRCA barred newly legalized aliens from receiving most federally funded public assistance for five years. Exceptions included access to Medicaid for pregnant women, children, the elderly, the handicapped, and for emergency care. The State Legalization Impact Assistance Grant (SLIAG) program reimbursed state and local governments the costs for providing public assistance, education, and public health services to the legalized aliens. The Department of Health and Human Services, which administered SLIAG, reported that the program reimbursed states $3.5 billion, averaging $1,167 per eligible legalized alien, during its seven years of operation (David Simcox, Measuring the Fallout: The Cost of IRCA Amnesty After 10 Years, Washington, DC: Center for Immigration Studies, May 1997).
Employer Sanctions
The employer sanctions provision of IRCA was intended to correct a double standard that prohibited unauthorized aliens from working in the United States but permitted employers to hire them. IRCA prohibited employers from hiring, recruiting, or referring for a fee aliens known to be unauthorized to work in the United States. Employers who violated the law were subject to a series of civil fines or criminal penalties when a pattern or practice of violations was found.
The burden of proof was on employers to demonstrate that their employees had valid proof of identity and were authorized to work. IRCA required employers to complete the Employment Eligibility Verification form, known as Form I-9 (see Figure 2.1), for each employee
FIGURE 2.1
Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9
TABLE 2.2
Documents that can be used to demonstrate employment eligibility, with October 2000 changes noted
| List A Documents that establish both identity and employment eligibility |
OR | List B Documents that establish identity |
AND | List C Documents that establish employment eligibility |
| 1. U.S. Passport (unexpired or expired) | 1. Driver's license or ID card issued by a state or outlying possession of the United States provided it contains a photograph or information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color and address | 1. U.S. social security card issued by the Social Security Administration (other than a card stating it is not valid for employment) | ||
| 2. Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (INS from N-560 or N-561) | 2. ID card issued by federal, state or local government agencies or entities, provided it contains a photograph or information such as name, date of birth, gender, height, eye color and address | 2. Certification of Birth Abroad issued by the Department of State (Form FS-545 or form DS-1350) | ||
| 3. Certificate of Naturalization (INS from N-550 or N-570) | 3. School ID card with a photograph | 3. Original or certified copy of a birth certificate issued by a state, county, municipal authority or outlying possession of the United States bearing an official seal | ||
| 4. Unexpired foreign passport, with I-551 stamp or attached INS form I-94 indicating unexpired employment authorization | 4. Voter's registration card | 4. Native American tribal document | ||
| 5. Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card with photograph (INS form I-151 or I-551) | 5. U.S. Military card or draft record | 5. U.S. Citizen ID Card (INS form I-197) | ||
| 6. Unexpired Temporary Card (INS form I-688) | 6. Military dependent's ID card | 6. ID Card for use of Resident Citizen in the United States (INS form I-179) | ||
| 7. Unexpired Employment Authorization Card (INS form I-688A) | 7. U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Card | 7. Unexpired employment authorization document issued by the INS (other than those listed under list A) | ||
| 8. Unexpired Reentry Permit (INS form I-327) | 8. Native American tribal document | |||
| 9. Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (INS form I-571) | 9. Driver's license issued by a Canadian government authority | |||
| For persons under age 18 who are unable to present a document listed above: | ||||
| 10. Unexpired Employment Authorization Document issued by the INS which contains a photograph (INS form I-688B) | 10. School record or report card | |||
| 11. Clinic, doctor or hospital record | ||||
| 12. Day-care or nursery school record | ||||
| The form above was last updated on October 4, 2000. The following changes were made to the I-9 process since then (as of July 14, 2003). | ||||
| • Form I-766 (Employment Authorization Document), although not listed on the 11/21/91 version of the Form I-9, is an acceptable list A document #10. | ||||
| • Form I-151 is no longer an acceptable list A document #5. However, form I-551 remains an acceptable list A document #5. | ||||
| • The following documents have been removed from the list of acceptable identity and work authorization documents: Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (list A #2), Certificate of Naturalization (list A #3), Unexpired Reentry Permit (list A #8), and Unexpired Refugee Travel Document (list A #9). | ||||
hired. In completing the form the employer certified that the employee had presented valid proof of identity and eligibility for employment, and that these documents appeared genuine. Table 2.2 lists documents acceptable for proof of identity and employment eligibility. (A number of the documents were later deleted from the list, as noted at the bottom of Table 2.2. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a revised version of Form I-9 and the list of eligible documents, to be available sometime in 2005.) IRCA also required employers to retain the completed I-9 forms and produce them in response to an official government request.
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