Introduction: Immigration Law and Policy in the 1990s

Abstract

Immigration will shape America's future even more than it has shaped her past and present. Consider the following facts: * During the decade of the 1980s, some 5.8 million people will have been admitted to the United States for legal permanent residence, and some 2.7 million more who had resided here illegally will have been legalized under the various amnesty provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). The total of approximately 8.5 million will far exceed the 4.5 million admitted during the 197 0s and will approach the almost 8.8 million who came here during the first decade of this century when immigration was essentially unrestricted and at the highest levels ever.