Lessons Learned by an Insider in the 30 Years Since IRCA
By Dan Cadman, October 26, 2016
My colleague Jerry Kammer has posted a couple of read-worthy blogs on the 30th anniversary of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA); see here and here.
At the time of IRCA's passage, and for many years afterward, I was an insider: one of the cogs of government charged with implementing the omnibus legislation. Immediately pre- and post-passage of IRCA, I worked on, and later supervised, one of the teams within the Immigration and Naturalization Service Central Office (INS CO) that was charged with implementing new enforcement measures, including employment verification and penalties procedures, commonly known as "employer sanctions".
Kammer's blogs harkened me to reflect upon those years and what lessons I've drawn from them. At the time, there was a palpable excitement among those who staffed the various working divisions inside INS CO, including me. Naive as it sounds in retrospect, we felt on the cusp of great things and new challenges that would march us boldly into the future.
http://cis.org/cadman/insiders-look-back-30-years-irca
