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the back door to undocumented/illegal migration, opening the front door a little more to accommodate legal migration in the interests of this country, defining our immigration goals clearly and providing a structure to implement them effectively, and setting forth procedures which will lead to fair and efficient adjudication and administration of U.S. immigration laws. 17

1. REFUGEES AND THE REFUGEE ACT OF 1980

During the 5-year period, 1975-1980, refugees and refugee-related issues dominated congressional concern with immigration more than they had since the years following World War II. Beginning with the fall of Vietnam and Cambodia in April 1975, this period saw the admission of more than 400,000 Indochinese refugees, the enactment of major amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act in the form of the Refugee Act of 1980, and the exodus from Mariel Harbor, Cuba to southern Florida.

The 1980 refugee legislation was enacted in part in response to Congress's increasing frustration with the difficulty of dealing with the ongoing large-scale Indochinese refugee flow under the existing ad hoc refugee admission and resettlement mechanisms. By the end of the 1970s, a consensus had been reached that a more coherent and equitable approach to refugee admission and resettlement was needed. The result was the amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act contained in the Refugee Act of 1980, enacted on March 17, 1980 (P.L. 96-212; 94 Stat. 102). The Refugee Act repealed the ideological and geographic limitations which had previously favored refugees fleeing communism or from countries in the Middle East and redefined "refugee" to conform with the definition used in the United Nations Protocol and Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. The term "refugee” is now defined by the Immigration and Nationality Act as a person who is unwilling or unable to return to his country of nationality or habitual residence because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The 1980 amendments made provision for both a regular flow and the emergency admission of refugees, following legislatively prescribed consultation with the Congress. In addition, the law authorized Federal assistance for the resettlement of refugees.

Shortly after the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980, large numbers of Cubans entered the United States through southern Florida, totaling an estimated 125,000, along with continuing smaller numbers of Haitians. The Carter Administration was unwilling to classify either group as refugees, and no action was taken on the special legislation sought by the Administration. Beginning in 1984, the Reagan Ådministration adjusted the majority of the Cubans to lawful permanent resident status under P.L. 89-732, 1966 legislation enacted in response to the Cuban refugee situation in the 1960s. However, the status of the Cuban/Haitian entrants was not resolved finally until enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which included special legalization provisions.

2. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND THE IMMIGRATION REFORM AND

CONTROL ACT OF 1986

Immigration legislation focusing on illegal immigration was considered and passed by the 99th Congress, and enacted as P.L. 99-603 (Act of November 6, 1986; 100 Stat. 3359), the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). P.L. 99– 603 consists primarily of amendments to the basic immigration law, the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.).

Reform of the law relating to the control of illegal immigration had been under consideration for 15 years, since the early 1970s. The 1986 legislation marked the culmination of bipartisan efforts both by Congress and the executive branch under four Presidents. As an indication of the growing magnitude of the problem, the annual apprehension of undocumented aliens by the Department of Justice's Immigration and Naturalization Service increased from 505,949 in 1972, the first year legislation aimed at controlling illegal immigration_received House action, to 1,767,400 in 1986. Immigration and Naturalization Service apprehensions dropped to 1,190,488 in fiscal year 1987 and to 954,243 in fiscal year 1989 but rose again to 1,327,259 in fiscal year 1993.

The prospect of employment at U.S. wages generally has been agreed to be the economic magnet that draws aliens here illegally. The principal legislative remedy

17 Ibid., p. 3.

proposed in the past and included in the new law is employer sanctions, or penalties for employers who knowingly hire aliens unauthorized to work in the United States. The other major provisions of the new law directly relate to employer sanctions. First, in an attempt to deal humanely with aliens who established roots here before the change in policy represented by the new Act, a legalization program was established that provides legal status for otherwise eligible aliens who had been here illegally since prior to 1982. Second, the legislation sought to respond to the apparent heavy dependence of seasonal agriculture on illegal workers by creating a 7-year special agricultural worker program, and by streamlining the previously existing "H-2" temporary worker program to expedite availability of alien workers and to provide statutory protections for U.S. and alien labor.

3. LEGAL IMMIGRATION AND THE IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1990 Following the enactment in 1986 of major legislation relating to illegal immigration, congressional legislative attention shifted to legal immigration, including the numerical limits on permanent immigration. This was an issue for a number of reasons. The numerical limits and preference system regulating the admission of legal immigrants originated in 1965, with some subsequent amendments. Since that time, and particularly in recent years, concern arose over the greater number of immigrants admitted on the basis of family reunification compared to the number of independent" non-family immigrants, and over the limited number of visas available under the preference system to certain countries. There was also concern about the backlogs under the existing preference system and, by some, about the admission of immediate relatives of U.S. citizens outside the numerical limits. Major legislation addressing these concerns passed the Senate and was introduced in the House in the 100th Congress (1987-1988). However, only temporary legislation addressing limited concerns passed both, leaving further consideration of a full-scale revision of legal immigration to the 101st Congress.

Major omnibus immigration_legislation, the Immigration Act of 1990, was signed into law as P.L. 101-649 by President Bush on November 29, 1990. The Act represented a major revision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which remained the basic immigration law. A primary focus of P.L. 101-649 was the numerical limits and preference system regulating permanent legal immigration. Beyond legal immigration, the eight-title Act dealt with many other aspects of immigration law, ranging from nonimmigrants to criminal aliens to naturalization.

Major changes relating to legal immigration included an increase in total immigration under an overall flexible cap, an increase in annual employment-based immigration from 54,000 to 140,000, and a permanent provision for the admission of "diversity immigrants" from underrepresented countries. P.L. 101-649 provided for a permanent annual level of at least 675,000 immigrants beginning in fiscal year 1995, preceded by an annual level of approximately 700,000 during fiscal years 1992 through 1994. Refugees were the only major group of aliens not included. The Act established a three-track preference system for family-sponsored, employmentbased, and diversity immigrants. Additionally, the Act significantly amended the work-related nonimmigrant categories for temporary admission.

P.L. 101-649 addressed a series of other issues pending before the Congress. It provided undocumented Salvadorans with temporary protected status for a limited period of time, and amended the Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize the Attorney General to grant temporary protected status to nationals of designated countries subject to armed conflict or natural disasters. It authorized a temporary stay of deportation and work authorization for legalized aliens' eligible immediate family members, and made 55,000 additional numbers available for them annually during fiscal years 1992-1994. In response to criticism of employer sanctions, it expanded the antidiscrimination provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, and increased the penalties for unlawful discrimination. As part of a revision of all the grounds for exclusion and deportation, it significantly rewrote the political and ideological grounds which had been controversial since their enactment in 1952.

M. SELECTED REFERENCES

Bennett, Marion T. American immigration policies: a history. Washington, Public Affairs Press, 1963. 362 p.

Bernard, William S., ed. Immigration policy-a reappraisal. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1950. 341 p.

Divine, Robert A. American immigration policy, 1924–1952. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1957. 220 p.

Gordon, Charles, and Harry N. Rosenfield. Immigration law and procedure. Rev. ed., New York, Matthew Bender, 1980. 6 v.

Handlin, Oscar. The Americans. Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1963. 434 p.

ed. Immigration as a factor in American history. Englewood Cliffs, PrenticeHall, Inc., 1959. 206 p.

The Uprooted. 2d ed. Boston, Little, Brown and Co., 1973. 333 p.

Harper, Elizabeth J. Immigration laws of the United States. 3d ed. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1975. 756 p.

Higham, John. Send these to me. New York, Atheneum, 1975. 259 p.

Strangers in the land, patterns of American nativism, 1860–1925. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1955. 431 p.

Immigration. Law and contemporary problems, Duke University School of Law, v. 21, spring 1956: 211-426.

Jones, Maldwyn Allen. American immigration. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1960. 358 p.

Rischin, Moses, ed. Immigration and the American tradition. Indianapolis, BobbsMerrill Co., Inc., 1976. 456 p.

Schwartz, Abba P. The Open society. New York, William Morrow & Co., Inc., 1968. 241 p.

Scott, Franklin D. The peopling of America: perspectives on immigration. Washington, American Historical Association, 1972. 75 p. (AHA pamphlets 241).

Taylor, Philip. The Distant magnet, European emigration to the U.S.A. New York, Harper & Row, 1971. 326 p.

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. The immigration and naturalization systems of the United States. Washington, GPO, 1950. 925 p. (81st Congress, 2d session. Senate. Report No. 1515).

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1993. Washington, GPO, 1994. 183 p.

U.S. Immigration Commission. Brief statement of the investigations of the Immigration Commission, with conclusions and recommendations and views of the minority. U.S. Senate Doc. 747, 61st Congress, 3d session. Washington, GPO, 19101911.

U.S. Interagency Task Force on Immigration Policy. Staff report. [Washington] Departments of Justice, Labor, and State, March 1979. 540 p.

U.S. Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service. Immigration Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-649), by Joyce Vialet and Larry Eig. [Washington] Dec. 14, 1990. 27 p. (CRS Report for Congress No. 90–601 EPW).

U.S. immigration law and policy: 1952-1986; report prepared for the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate. Dec. 1987. Washington, GPO, 1988. 138 p. (100th Congress, 1st session. Committee Print. S. Prt. 100-100).

U.S. President's Commission on Immigration and Naturalization. Whom we shall welcome; report. Washington, GPO [1953] 319 p.

U.S. Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. Final report: U.S. immigration policy and the national interest. Mar. 1, 1981. Washington, GPO, 1981. 453 p.

White, Jerry C. A Statistical history of immigration. I and N Reporter, v. 25, summer 1976: 1-9.

1. TABLE 1.-IMMIGRATION BY REGION AND SELECTED COUNTRY OF LAST RESIDENCE; FISCAL YEARS 1820-1993

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1. TABLE 1.-IMMIGRATION BY REGION AND SELECTED COUNTRY OF LAST RESIDENCE; FISCAL YEARS 1820-1993-CONTINUED

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