LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Immigration Reform: Immigration Reform Act
built 276 days ago
Looks at the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, and examines some of the weaknesses of its design and implementation that caused it to fall short of stated goals. Lessons that could be learned from IRCA are put in today's political, social, and economic context.
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Following President Bush’s continued public statements of support for comprehensive immigration reform, the Senate Judiciary Committee will push the issue this week with the hopes of a confirmation that the President wants the legislation addressed this year. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy is looking for a commitment from administration officials on a timetable to further establish immigration reform as a priority and ensure they take an active role in the legislation. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will both testify at the hearing. As the Senate begins the process of developing bipartisan legislation, Chairman Leahy hopes the confirmation from the administration will lend additional support to the issue among Republicans on Capitol Hill who have felt left out of recent discussions. In addition, Democrats want to ensure the White House is involved so all will share in any criticism created by the legislation.
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The klieg lights of the media often turn thoughtful policy discussions into cartoonish debates, and this habit is distorting the Senate’s consideration of immigration reform. Libertarians and pro-business conservatives who favor immigration and open borders are supposedly squaring off against conservatives who favor law, order, and national security. But the strongest libertarian advocates of free markets might want to take a closer look at the details of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, S. 2611). The 600-page bill is stuffed with provisions that are difficult to decipher, some good, no doubt, and some that are alarming. Alarms bells should be ringing at the idea of creating a new bureaucracy within the Department of Labor tasked with centrally planning labor markets for untold numbers of guest workers. This would be a mistake.
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William King, Jr. — who once headed the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service — can't help but see the similarities between IRCA and the so-called immigration "reform" bill that is currently being discussed today. King, a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol, has criticized the Comprehensive Immigration and Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1348), claiming it would result in "failure."
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Congress' difficulty in passing immigration reform legislation comes as no surprise to those who have followed this issue over the years, especially the debates that led to the seriously flawed Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. Many of the factors that caused IRCA to fail are as prevalent now as they were in 1986. Diverse economic interests, personal biases, and political ideologies make it hard to build consensus for effective immigration policies. These complications are exacerbated by the absence of reliable information about the magnitude of unauthorized immigration and its impact on the American economy and society. Unlike many other policy issues, there are no clear political alignments on immigration, making it difficult to build the coalitions needed to align the complex components of a successful immigration policy.
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Immigration reform must contain a workable temporary worker program. Such a program must create a sufficient number of visas to meet the needs of the U.S. economy. A crucial flaw in the McCain-Kennedy bill passed by the Senate last May was that it capped annual visas at 200,000 -- far below actual demand.
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Immigration Reform Act