preview

Immigration Act Of 1990 Essay

Decent Essays

The Immigration Act of 1990 was a significant milestone in immigration policy. It was the first major change to the United States legal immigration in a quarter of a century and continues to be the framework for today’s immigration system. This act attempted to create a system that would meet the future need of the economy. It did this by redesigning three areas of immigration: family sponsored, five distinct employment-based visas, and diversity-based visas which created a lottery program to admit more immigrants from countries with low admittance or countries whose citizenry is underrepresented in the United States.
Former Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy was the lead sponsor of the Immigration Act of 1990. Ted Kennedy spearheaded many different immigration acts and served as the “original sponsor of 70 refugee- related measures and co-sponsored …show more content…

This limit of 10,000 for low wage workers was then reduced in 1997 to 5,000. By decreasing the opportunities for low wage workers to basically a trickle more immigrants looking for work and a better life probably started entering illegally. This impacts people’s health and relationships. Crossing the border is not easy people could face “heatstroke, hypothermia, dehydration, armed property owners, immigration authorities, drowning, corrupt Mexican police, street gangs, American and Mexican drug smugglers, robbery, suffocation (usually in vehicles) …rape, car accidents, abandonment, and getting lost” (Gomberg-Muñoz, 2011). Coming over illegally can also lead to families being separated which would be extremely hard on all individuals involved. Being undocumented effects everyday life even just what we consider routine activities like getting around -from not being able to get a driver’s license and the stress of driving without one to want to walk but being to afraid too because nobody else

Get Access