Comparing Biden's Proposed Amnesty to the Legalization of the 1980s
By David North on February 5, 2021
How does the proposed Biden amnesty for illegal aliens compare with the nation's only full-scale legalization program, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of the 1980s?
First, and foremost, the concept of control or enforcement is totally missing, as my colleague, Mark Krikorian, has pointed out.
Second, it would be a much larger program, covering virtually everyone in illegal status, a group of some 11 million, as opposed to the roughly three million who secured legalization in the earlier program.
Third, the proposed program, like IRCA, is a multi-part entity, putting some populations on the road to citizenship more quickly than others.
I saw a lot of IRCA because the Ford Foundation asked me to monitor it, which I did for the better part of two years, both here in Washington and in a number of states from here to California. I also had some contact with the main authors of the program in Congress, Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Roman Mazzoli (D-Ky.). The staff and the leadership of the old Immigration and Naturalization Service were very cooperative in our research. (The report, published in 1989, was entitled "The U.S. Alien Legalization Program". Another 1989 report I co-authored on IRCA was “Decision Factories: The Role of the Regional Processing Facilities in the Alien Legalization Program,†for the Administrative Conference of the United States.)
https://cis.org/North/Comparing-Bidens-Proposed-Amnesty-Legalization-1980s
