The unkept promise of the bipartisan Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986 is that its amnesty for millions of undocumented (a/k/a illegal) immigrants arriving in the U.S. prior to January 1982 was supposed to be a one-time thing, a resolution to an immigration crisis so bad that it would never be allowed to occur again in the future. There is no doubt here at the CLB that the majority of those granted amnesty were common variety economic refugees seeking economic opportunity in the U.S. A problem then and now is that economic refugees have no entitlement to illegal entry into the U.S.
Apart from its bountiful amnesty, the 1986 Act (also known as the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986) was noted for the duty placed on employers to decline employment of the illegals and to attest to the legal status of their employees. Your blogger complies by requiring new hires to produce multiple identification documents.
Border control was supposed to be enhanced under Simpson-Mazzoli but was not due largely to poor funding and the lack of political will.
The position of the CLB is that the Simpson-Mazzoli Act was an abject failure for reasons including that such a grant of immigration amnesty naturally encourages future illegal immigration. Current provisions in the law for legitimate seekers of asylum and for “legal” immigration are amnesty enough. We know from Simpson-Mazzoli that Congress cannot keep a promise on immigration. Solving the problem of immigration seems to be beyond the competence of our current Congress. What Congress is capable of (probably) is to enhance border security. Closing the border entirely (but for a limited period of time) would be a good method to capture the attention of the Mexican government, which seems unconcerned with stemming the tide of illegal crossings at the U.S. border and with the requisite path of Central and South Americans into and through Mexico on the way to the U.S. border.
Among the prospective resolutions worth considering is the allowance of increased authority of the border states or the states in general. The brutish inclination of Texas for instance, to install razor wire at the border is at least a superior deterrent to any imposed by the federal government.
The point of view of this Article is that of a reasonably reliable Democrat who ranks immigration policy as an issue in the coming (2024) general election.¹
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¹ Another issue for November is which likely major party nominee (Biden or Trump) is more senile. To those who say we get the elected officials that we deserve, I say that we have been bad but not so bad as that. Folks, we deserve a better choice.
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