The State; '86 Amnesty Frames Immigration Debate; The law, which legalized millions but didn't halt the flow, offers lessons in the battle over reforms HOME EDITION

Under the 1986 law, illegal immigrants who had lived continuously in the United States since before 1982 were eligible for temporary resident status, and for permanent residency within 18 months after that, if they met certain requirements, including learning English. The program, which took effect...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Los Angeles times
Main Author Teresa Watanabe and Anna Gorman
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, Calif Los Angeles Times Communications LLC 03.06.2006
Subjects
Amnesties
Citizenship
Federal legislation
History
Immigration policy
Noncitizens
Reagan, Ronald Wilson
Reforms
United States > US
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Summary:Under the 1986 law, illegal immigrants who had lived continuously in the United States since before 1982 were eligible for temporary resident status, and for permanent residency within 18 months after that, if they met certain requirements, including learning English. The program, which took effect in 1987, also covered up to 350,000 people who had worked in U.S. agriculture at least 90 days in each of three years. Immigration attorney Bernard Wolfsdorf said the amnesty left out too many illegal immigrants because of the requirement that they had to have lived in the U.S. for at least the previous five years. Some experts estimate that the amnesty benefited only about half of the illegal population, perpetuating worker abuse and leaving largely untouched social networks that attracted more illegal migrants. 1986 law: * Provided temporary resident status for those in the U.S. continuously since before 1982, with permanent residency after 18 months, with learning of minimal English and U.S. civics.
ISSN:0458-3035