Three Infamous Dates To Remember As Sovereignty Slides Away
November 6, 1986 President Reagan signs the IRCA. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was passed to control unauthorized immigration to the United States. Under the amnesty provision, illegal aliens who lived continuously in the United States since before January 1, 1982, could have applied to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for legal resident status by May 4, 1988, the application cutoff date. The Special Agricultural Worker (SAW) program of IRCA program was included in the law to allow producers of perishable crops, who typically have relied heavily on an illegal labor supply, to adjust to recruiting and hiring legal workers. The program covers most crops but no livestock.
To that date illegal immigrant labor was chiefly employed in the agricultural sector. But, as a consequence of the act, four things followed over the next ten years. 1) Illegal immigration soared because of the hope that it created for Mexico’s poor. 2) The existing system was not able to absorb the rising number of immigrants, which gave rise to vocal and politically active cultural separatists from within its ranks. 3) The surplus of illegal immigrants found their way into the services industries, which provided year around employment, and they started bringing their families north. 4) The Act emboldened liberal politicians nation wide who then expanded the privileges of these aliens.
President Reagan would later admit that his support of the IRCA and its unintended consequences were the one serious error in judgment during his 8 year administration.
April 16, 1999 Governor Gray Davis sends California’s appeal of Judge Pfaelzer’s final ruling with regard to California’s Proposition 187 to federal mediation with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. This spells the death knell for one of the most widely supported, public backlashes against the consequences of unregulated immigration fostered by the IRCA in 1986.
Rising out of the ashes of the IRCA in 1986 was a swelling illegal immigrant population in California that was being accorded access to more and more tax supported infrastructure by its liberal legislature and sweeping inclusions by the federal bench under the guise of the protection of the 14th Amendment. The populous of California rebelled. Proposition 187, an initiative originating from the people’s anger was rapidly qualified for the November 1994 ballot. The initiative limited the access of illegal immigrants to the tax-supported infrastructure. It passed by a 62% to 36% margin, nearly a two to one margin of approval. Immigrant rights groups quickly challenged the new law and it languished in the federal and state courts for almost 5 years under a permanent injunction until the newly elected Governor Davis secretly submitted it to arbitration.
This sent a clear message to Mexico’s government and its poor that the welcome mat was out in California. Today the state dedicates about 1/3 of its budget ($33B) to meet the needs of the consequences of illegal immigration since WWII.
January 7, 2004 President Bush announces an administration program to take the first steps to "normalize" the residency of millions of illegal immigrants who had been languishing in a gray zone in the US for as much as twenty years. An easy step to short term legal residency and an arduous route to citizenship is offered as an incentive for cooperation.
The announcement produced three immediate consequences. 1) A backlash from taxpayers in the Southwestern US already overburdened by the consequences of the previous mistakes. 2) A backlash from average US citizens over the policy’s effect on our boarder security in the face of a rising tide of terrorist threats. 3) A tremendous rush north by Mexico’s poor as they once again mistakenly assumed that all who come will be welcomed. Boarder incursions in Arizona rose as much as 60% in the weeks and months following the announcement.
Originally posted as a vanity yesterday at 12:50 p.m. but quickly pulled out of respect for the passing of Ronald Reagan. I will post it again as a stand alone vanity in two weeks. It never hurts to keep reminding Republicans of their heritage
I'm sorry I missed it. How much a grip on reality Schartzenegger has is anyone's guess, but it would behoove him to know that if he doesn't already. His loose-cannon stance is really getting on my nerves.