PRO-ARIZONA IMMIGRATION REFORM

PRO-ARIZONA IMMIGRATION REFORM

Table of Contents

PRO-ARIZONA IMMIGRATION REFORM

Introduction

The Immigration Reform and Control Act, also Simpson - Mazzoli Act, signed by President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986, is an Act of Congress which reformed United States immigration law. Basically this act made it illegal to hire unauthorized immigrants. The employers also had to certify status of their employees' immigration. However, this act also allowed illegal aliens to stay in this country if they were here before January 1, 1982... at same residence. (Helton 1998)

Body: Discussion and Analysis

There were two phases to this act. In first phase illegal aliens that were already in this country were supposed to beat deadline for amnesty in 1986. The second phase deals with sanctions for employers. This paper will explain why act has failed offering explanations from various scholarly sources. (Jacoby 2006)

According to an article by Arthur Helton printed by ABA Journal “highly legalistic nature of process made it inaccessible to many undocumented residents who needed legal or other assistance. The filing fees, meticulous document demands and fear caused by inability of INS to give appropriate assurances all combined to undercut what would seem to be promise of program." Helton further states that "it's hard to say for sure whether we would have had more applicants with extended time or the smaller fee." "But I think because of intense publicity campaign we had, going out and getting information out to people, I doubt we would have gotten much more." "The fee in our opinion was certainly reasonable." Helton goes on to explain how there was the grass roots effort to drive from neighborhood to neighborhood passing out information, making applications available, providing INS employees to assist aliens in completing their applications, etc.

Another reason cited for failure of first phase of amnesty is that "qualified designated entities" (QDE's) that helped file applications with INS for aliens charged fees over and above straight fee. This practice led to the need for an extension of deadline but Immigration Nationalization Service (INS) felt that an extension of deadline would lead to people continuing to come to U.S. illegally. Today, Americans say that immigration is out of control and further reform is needed. (Miller 2005)

In article "Immigration Nation" by Tamar Jacoby it was suggested that " best way to regain control (of illegal immigration) is not to crack down but to liberalize - to expand quotas, with the guest worker program or some other method, until they line up with labor needs." Jacoby says that “only practical solution is to give unauthorized workers and their families the way to earn their way onto right side of law." He continues with, "this should be done not just for their sake but also because it is only way to restore integrity of immigration code, bring underground economy onto tax roles, and eliminate potential security threat posed by millions illegal immigrants whose real names no one knows and who have never undergone security checks." Jacoby suggests three steps to follow; more immigrant worker ...