Over the past two months, business leaders and their political allies have returned to an old refrain: “Where are the workers?” With bottlenecks wreaking havoc on the global supply chain, fresh claims of a nationwide labor shortage have given way to familiar questions about U.S. immigration policy. In October, the CEO of Domino’s Pizza told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that a decline in net immigration is hurting the restaurant industry. “We literally have to start thinking about an immigration policy that involves taking in people,” Cramer added. Days earlier, on Oct. 12, the Biden administration announced an end to immigration raids in workplaces, signaling, as the New York Times wrote, “that undocumented workers are not at risk of being deported en masse.” On Nov. 23, the newspaper reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is now urging a complete “overhaul” of the U.S. immigration system “to allow more work visas and green cards.”
If policymakers want to make the United States a better destination for low-wage immigrant workers, they might revisit a piece of legislation enacted 35 years ago this month. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) was the last major reconfiguration of the legal framework that looms over recent conversations about immigration and labor.
Though it is best remembered for creating a path to legal status for some 3 million people living in the United States, the legislation also included provisions to make America a more hostile place for...
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