Immigration Reform and Control Act Grants Amnesty to 3 Million, Employer Sanctions Fail

President Ronald Reagan signs the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), also known as the Simpson-Mazzoli Act, enacting the first federal law to impose sanctions on employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers while simultaneously granting amnesty to approximately 3 million undocumented immigrants. Sponsored by Republican Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Democratic Representative Romano Mazzoli of Kentucky, who both served on the Hesburgh Commission, the legislation represents a grand bargain: legalization for those already in the country in exchange for enforcement mechanisms intended to prevent future unauthorized immigration. The law requires employers to verify workers’ immigration status, establishes graduated civil and criminal penalties for violations, and creates a six-month public education period followed by a 12-month warning period before full enforcement begins.

The amnesty provisions achieve immediate success, transforming the lives of millions mostly of Hispanic descent. Approximately 1.6 million individuals legalize through general amnesty provisions, and an additional 1.1 million through special agricultural worker (SAW) provisions. Qualified applicants must prove continuous U.S. residence since January 1, 1982, and apply within a one-year window from May 1987 to May 1988, paying fees and providing extensive documentation including fingerprints, employment history, and residency proof. Those granted legal status gain economic and social opportunities, protection from deportation, and eventual pathways to citizenship.

The employer sanctions provisions fail catastrophically due to minimal governmental oversight and enforcement combined with employers’ lack of economic incentive to verify legal status. Studies find that sanctions result in little actual deterrent effect on unauthorized immigration. While IRCA does not encourage illegal immigration in the long term, it fails to curb it, with some researchers attributing this failure to inadequate focus on root causes and economic determinants of migration. The law’s enforcement mechanisms prove so weak that unauthorized immigration continues and eventually accelerates, creating political backlash and demands for more punitive approaches. Multiple studies confirm that neither IRCA’s amnesty nor the potential for future amnesty programs encourages illegal immigration, contradicting a common political narrative. The law demonstrates how immigration reform can succeed at humanitarian goals (legalizing existing populations) while failing at enforcement objectives when corporate interests resist compliance and government agencies lack political will for meaningful oversight—a pattern that recurs in subsequent immigration debates as employer sanctions remain largely symbolic while demands for border enforcement and deportation intensify.