Illegal Immigration and
the Mexican EconomyThe Immigration Reform and Control
Act (IRCA) of 1986 took action to control
future immigration by beefing up the
Border Patrol and making it unlawful to
knowingly employ undocumented aliens,
with penalties prescribed for employers
who did so. Nonetheless, the act also con-
ceded the impossibility of deporting all
those who had ever entered illegally. It
offered amnesty and legal status to undoc-
umented immigrants who had entered
the United States before 1982 and
remained there since, as well as to immi-
grants who could demonstrate that they
had engaged in farmwork for a sufficient-
ly long period in more recent years.
IRCA had some impact in reducing
illegal immigration, but its force was dilut-
ed by the ease with which undocumented
workers could obtain counterfeit docu-
ments “proving” their legal status to
employers, who could then evade prosecu-
tion for not verifying the status. The act
also resulted in some cases of unfair dis-
crimination against Hispanics in general,
as employers decided the best way to avoid
prosecution was not to hire Hispanics. In
an attempt to continue a tough attitude
toward illegal immigration, Congress
enacted another immigration law in 1996,
this one including penalties for undocu-
mented aliens who try to legalize their sta-
tus by marrying a U.S. citizen. But
Mexicans continued to flow into the coun-
try illegally despite all such efforts.
In many ways, the provision of IRCA
that undocumented farmworkers be
offered amnesty and legal status high-
lights the very complex relationship
between Mexico and the United States on
both legal and illegal immigration. That
migrant laborers were singled out for
amnesty while other recently arrived
undocumented aliens were not illustrates
that regardless of changing immigration
laws, both the U.S. and Mexican
economies rely on the maintainance of a
steady flow of inexpensive Mexican labor
to work American farmlands. Thus, even
as IRCA tightened border patrols in the
1980s, more than 1 million Mexicans were
able to immigrate legally to the United
States—representing about one-sixth of
all legal immigration during that decade.
IRCA’s provisions tightening border
patrols were not put into place to stem
legal immigration, however. In addition
to the flow of legal immigrants, many
Mexicans entered the United States ille-
gally during the final decades of the 20th
century. Often they tried to immigrate
legally but found that the backlog of
applications made it virtually impossible
that they would be admitted soon or ever.
Precise figures are unavailable, but the
number of people captured and deported
to Mexico each year for lacking proper
immigration documents is an indication
of the number, since at least as many
Mexicans can be expected to elude cap-
ture and remain in the United States.
During the 1970s, the average number of
people so deported was 721,000 per year;
in the 1980s and 1990s, the average num-
ber went up to 1 million a year.
As the flow of illegal immigration
increased, the U.S Border Patrol became
more effective at monitoring the border,
using everything from more patrol offi-
cers and improved training to helicopters,
movement sensors, and night-vision gog-
gles. As the Border Patrol became more
effective, the coyotes who aided Mexicans
in crossing the border illegally became
more ingenious. Coyotes set up opera-
tions in Mexican border cities, where
aspiring immigrants paid them $300 and
up for assistance in immigrating illegally.
A favorite coyote technique was to
drive openly through immigration check-
points with immigrants hidden in vehi-
cles. The immigrants would then be
delivered to the nearest large city.
Another technique was to avoid immigra-
tion checkpoints and instead drop clients
off at a remote desert location south ofA CHANGING COMMUNITY 197California 2,000,000
Texas 700,000
Florida 540,000
New York 540,000
Illinois 290,000
New Jersey 135,000
Arizona 115,000
Massachusetts 55,000
Virginia 55,000
Washington 52,000Colorado 45,000
District of Columbia 44,000
Maryland 44,000
Michigan 37,000
New Mexico 37,000
Pennsylvania 37,000
Oregon 33,000
Connecticut 29,000
Georgia 32,000
Nevada 24,000TOP 20 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT
POPULATIONS BY STATE, 1996
Note: Illegal immigrant figures represent all nationalities.