by John Little

Created on: April 24, 2009

IMMIGRATION FROM THE IMMIGRANTS POINT OF VIEW

Today, there are over 12 million undocumented workers in the
United States. This is more undocumented workers than any other nation on Earth. The extent of people coming from Latin America to the US has reached unprecedented levels. Though undocumented workers have been coming to the US for decades, never have the levels reached this high.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 which was signed into law by then President Ronald Reagan was supposed to alleviate once and for all the entry into the US
of undocumented persons from other countries. Right off the bat, this law strictly prohibits employers from hiring, as they put it, "unauthorized aliens." They specifically require that all new hires anywhere in the US MUST provide proof of citizenship or residency, and proof of ability to work, usually in the form of what we call a Social Security Number or appropriate green card. This number is unique to each person and in the case of the green card, it identifies the person as being a foreigner with the authorization to work.

The provisions within this law demanded fines into the thousands of dollars for every undocumented worker hired by a given firm. Even mere paperwork violations were subject to incredible fines. It strictly prohibited businesses from recruiting foreigners to work in the US. This law specifically demanded that the Comptroller General give an annual report to Congress on the progress of the enactment of this law. But it also negated prosecution of anyone hired before the date this law became effective. In other words, all those who were undocumented before the date in 1986 that this law came into effect, were exempt from prosecution. Effectively, in 1986, the President Reagan cleaned the slate of all undocumented workers and gave everyone a fresh start.

This law was to put at zero the number of undocumented workers inside the US. It was to clear out the messy problem of those with no papers, and allow a fresh look at undocumented workers in the US. We were to start anew, with no undocumented workers to speak of, and with control on our borders. This was the chance for the US
to start fresh with no "unauthorized aliens." But something strange happened after that.

According to Wikipedia, as of January, 2006, there were 6.8 million undocumented Mexicans residing in the US. The rest of Latin America accounted for another three million. Asia
accounted for over one million more while the other nations

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