A State’s Sovereign Right: The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

Throughout the Bracero Program (1942-1964), Mexican officials proposed sanctions for those employers who knowingly hired Mexican nationals without an official labor contract in the US. Instead, US officials routinely deported Mexican nationals without contracts. When undocumented immigration reached new limits in the 1970s, US legislators introduced several bills centered on employer sanctions. The main critiques to these laws came from US employers who feared economic losses, and civil rights advocates who were concerned about employment discrimination against Hispanics. For fifteen years, the Mexican government kept track of these debates, evaluating the effects that the Simpson-Mazzoli bill could have on Mexico. Mexican officials were careful not to voice an official opinion on the bill, for fear of infringing on the sovereign rights of the US. However, they adopted two distinct strategies to cope with the possibility of immigration reform. Through its diplomatic branch, they encouraged US actors including activists, merchants, legislators, and labor leaders, to lobby against the law. Internally, they prepared for mass deportations, an increased demand for consular services, and floating populations in Mexican border cities. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was amended to include a legalization provision that ultimately affected 2.3 million Mexican nationals. The Mexican government had underestimated the undocumented population in the US, and did not predict the large number of migrants who would obtain legal status, nor the growing shift to permanent emigration. In the following years, it would correct this mistake by reaching out to its emigrant diaspora through its consulates, and facilitating relations between emigrants and their homeland.