Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 Totally Explained

Everything about Immigration Reform And Control Act Of 1986 totally explained

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), also Simpson-Mazzoli Act ( signed by President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986) is an Act of Congress which reformed United States immigration law. The Act made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit undocumented immigrants (immigrants who don't possess lawful work authorization), required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status, and granted amnesty to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided there continuously.

Legislative background and description

The law criminalized the act of knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant and established financial and other penalties for those employing illegal aliens under the theory that low prospects for employment would reduce illegal immigration. It introduced the I-9 form to ensure that all employees presented documentary proof of their legal eligibility to accept employment in the United States.
These sanctions would only apply to employers that had more than three employees and that didn't make a sufficient effort to determine the legal status of the worker. IRCA also established a provision that if "wide-spread" discrimination was caused through employer-sanctions, according to a three year report by the General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office) (GAO), then the sanctions would be repealed. The GAO found discrimination in 10% of cases studied, and the employment sanctions were not repealed.

Critics of the Act

The legislation is frequently cited by opponents of illegal immigration as a failure in that, for each undocumented worker granted amnesty under the plan, approximately four new ones have since replaced them. That assertion is based on the estimate that 2.7 million undocumented workers were legalized and the current estimate of undocumented workers in the United States is around 12 million.
Critics allege the IRCA of 1986 is proof in their view that amnesty isn't the solution for the large number of undocumented workers currently in the United States.

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. If hired, wages were lower 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 isn't 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. Thus, the IRCA's employer sanctions restructured the market for unskilled labor in the U.S., increased discrimination on the basis of legal status, increased discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, and contributed to subcontracting becoming the principal hiring method. Legal Hispanics are now working for lower wages and in bad working conditions "in return of the opportunity to work."Further Information

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