God Save America

Many of Same Congressmen are Pushing New Guest-Worker Amnesty Schemes

APPLETON, WI — In 1986, after years of heated wrangling over immigration, Congress passed — and President Reagan signed — the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA).

Amnesty proponents in Congress made various claims that, in the intervening 20 years, have been proven to be demonstrably false. Some members of the current Congress who voted for the ’86 bill are still in Congress and are still pushing amnesty bills and other immigration-related legislation that, based on past experience, is almost certain to exacerbate immigration problems.

The most intensely debated feature of the 1986 legislation was an amnesty for illegal aliens who met various qualifications. At the time, the amnesty advocates in Congress, the media and the militant migrant lobby placed the number of aliens who would qualify for the amnesty at around 1 million. But the actual number of illegal aliens who applied was more than three times that number, or 3.1 million. Most of them — 2.7 million — were rushed through and given a free pass on the road to citizenship.

Amnesty proponents had insisted that it would be impossible to enforce our borders and try to deport the many who had come here illegally. The only workable solution, they argued, would be to allow the aliens who were already here to stay, and then commit sufficient resources to enforce U.S. borders, so that more waves of migrants would not make it into the U.S. With these enforcement promises, enough members of Congress were convinced to vote for the bill, despite the amnesty provision.

However, after the creation of 2.7 million new “amnestied” aliens, Congress reneged on its promise to enforce U.S. borders, and after 20 years, they are in more desperate shape than ever, according to experts. The U.S. Border Patrol is still hopelessly undermanned and under-funded.

Regardless, the same amnesty proponents have come back repeatedly since 1986 and enacted additional amnesties — all the while doing nothing to enforce U.S. borders, as they repeatedly have promised to do. Numbers USA counts six amnesties since the ‘86 IRCA:

• Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994: Temporary rolling amnesty for 578,000 illegal aliens.
• Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997: Extension of 1994 rolling amnesty.
• Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), 1997: An amnesty for close to one million illegal aliens from Central America.
• Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act Amnesty (HRIFA), 1998: An amnesty for 125,000 illegal aliens from Haiti.
• Late Amnesty, 2000: Amnesty for illegal aliens who claim they should have been amnestied under the 1986 IRCA amnesty, an estimated 400,000 illegal aliens.
• LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000: A reinstatement of the rolling Section 245(i) amnesty, for an estimated 900,000 illegal aliens.

Many of the same Congressional amnesty proponents are back again, demanding an even larger amnesty for untold millions and, in addition, a “guest worker” program that will translate into an ongoing, continuous amnesty for millions more.

One hundred and two members of the current House and Senate were serving in Congress in 1986 and voted on the IRCA bill. It is very rare that a Congressional vote cast so many years ago can be used to impact current politicians. But this is an issue that is galvanizing American voters as few others have ever done. The IRCA vote could, however, be used to force today’s Congress to do what is right for America — or force them out of office in November.

For more information, contact: The John Birch Society, P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, WI 54912; (920) 749-3780; www.jbs.org.

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