Yesterday, I heard a presentation from the head of the Demographic Research Office at UNC, and thought based on that info and some other, it might be good to provide an historical look at immigration in the US and current trends.
I will try to keep this factual and objective, although no doubt many posters here won’t take it that way:
In 1920, the foreign-born population of the US was 13 percent. Due to some concerns and anxiety about those numbers and demographic change, Congress approved the Immigration Act of 1924. That act prohibited Asian immigration completely and established strict immigration quotas in the rest of the world, with far more favorable quotas for Western Europe. That act also established the first formal border control agency— The US Border Patrol.
There were some modifications in the act and a raising of some quotas, but it largely stood as passed in 1924 until 1965. As a result, the US foreign born population at the 197O US Census Count had dropped to 5 percent.
In 1965, Congress passed and LBJ signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. It eliminated de facto discrimination based on country of origin in US immigration law. It also set preferences into the law related to having relatives here, professional skills desired by employers and refugee status.
As a result, the foreign-born population and foreign-born labor force began to rise, and demographic changes began to occur.
Twenty years later, increasing demand for agricultural workers in the US, corresponding to increasing educational attainment by African-Americans, had led to a growing influx of migrants from Mexico — legal and illegal— to fill those jobs. In response, Congress passed and Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The law made legal an estimated 3 million people who had entered the country legally; it created, for the first time, a legal obligation and potential criminal penalties for employers to “check” a worker’s legal immigration status; it created the H2A agricultural guest workers program separate from general work visas; and it also, for the first time, led to the armed securing of the southern US border. Prior to its passage and this last result, most Mexican farm workers coming to the US illegally would enter seasonally, then go back home — arriving in the US in the spring and leaving in the fall. That changed with the passage of this law, as a majority in the US took advantage of the amnesty and those entering later simply would not take the risk of trying to return home after going through the border gauntlet.
As much as this administration or that administration has done or not done since, the 1986 law is still largely in force.
(Next, part two.)
I will try to keep this factual and objective, although no doubt many posters here won’t take it that way:
In 1920, the foreign-born population of the US was 13 percent. Due to some concerns and anxiety about those numbers and demographic change, Congress approved the Immigration Act of 1924. That act prohibited Asian immigration completely and established strict immigration quotas in the rest of the world, with far more favorable quotas for Western Europe. That act also established the first formal border control agency— The US Border Patrol.
There were some modifications in the act and a raising of some quotas, but it largely stood as passed in 1924 until 1965. As a result, the US foreign born population at the 197O US Census Count had dropped to 5 percent.
In 1965, Congress passed and LBJ signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. It eliminated de facto discrimination based on country of origin in US immigration law. It also set preferences into the law related to having relatives here, professional skills desired by employers and refugee status.
As a result, the foreign-born population and foreign-born labor force began to rise, and demographic changes began to occur.
Twenty years later, increasing demand for agricultural workers in the US, corresponding to increasing educational attainment by African-Americans, had led to a growing influx of migrants from Mexico — legal and illegal— to fill those jobs. In response, Congress passed and Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The law made legal an estimated 3 million people who had entered the country legally; it created, for the first time, a legal obligation and potential criminal penalties for employers to “check” a worker’s legal immigration status; it created the H2A agricultural guest workers program separate from general work visas; and it also, for the first time, led to the armed securing of the southern US border. Prior to its passage and this last result, most Mexican farm workers coming to the US illegally would enter seasonally, then go back home — arriving in the US in the spring and leaving in the fall. That changed with the passage of this law, as a majority in the US took advantage of the amnesty and those entering later simply would not take the risk of trying to return home after going through the border gauntlet.
As much as this administration or that administration has done or not done since, the 1986 law is still largely in force.
(Next, part two.)
