Challenges Before 1986 - A Broken System
U.S. immigration policy went through several significant changes in the 20th Century. The 1924 National Origins Quota Act created a restrictive system that greatly favored immigrants from Western and Northern Europe. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, also known as the Hart-Celler Act, eliminated the national origin quota system and created a new system that favored family reunification and skilled immigrants. Initially politicians did not expect significant changes. President Johnson said: “The bill that we sign today is not a revolutionary bill. . . . It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives, or really add importantly to either our wealth or our power.” Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) stated: "It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society."
Very soon, however, immigration to the United States dramatically increased and shifted to Latin America, Asia and Africa. The cancellation of the Bracero program for temporary farmworkers in 1964 and other restrictions on legal immigration from the Western Hemisphere led to a sharp rise in undocumented immigration in the 1970s, which was accompanied by growing anti-immigrant sentiment and workplace immigration raids. Our interviewees, who include undocumented workers, people who immigrated as children, and former students, describe their experiences navigating a broken system. Advocates and policy experts provide the context for the growth of the undocumented population.
Sagrario Mendez, a former ILGWU member and retiree, came from Honduras to the U.S. in 1974 in search of a job so that she could feed her two children who remained back home. She found work in the garment industry in New York City, where she was able to join the ILGWU. She recalls feeling empowered by her union job while at the same time struggling with the daily challenges of living undocumented.
Julian Pimiento, a union member, and playwright, moved with his family at the age of 2 from Colombia to Jackson Heights, Queens in 1972. He describes growing up between two worlds in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, living with the anxiety of keeping his undocumented status secret from his friends.
Muzaffar Chishti, Director of the Migration Policy Institute’s New York Office, started his career at the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) in 1983 as director of the union’s newly created Immigration Project. He points out that before 1986 it was not illegal for employers to hire undocumented workers. Yet the INS increasingly raided factories in the 1970s and 80s as the government began scrutinizing the issue of unauthorized workers. As director of the Immigration Project, Chishti represented the victims of these raids.
When Clarissa Martinez de Castro, Vice President, Latino Vote Initiative, UnidosUS, was 16, she and her family came to Los Angeles to visit family. They overstayed their visa instead of returning to Mexico because of concern about conditions in Mexico, and Clarissa started high school in East Los Angeles as an undocumented teenager. Now an advocate for voter empowerment and engagement, she describes in the interview the stress of her immigration status and how it nearly kept her from pursuing a college education.
Fanny Julissa García is an oral historian who was raised in Honduras and Mexico until she contracted a severe health condition, which prompted her mother to take her to the United States in search of medical treatment. At the age of 10 she arrived in Los Angeles, knowing little English. She describes the challenges of navigating school as an English Language Learner, learning about civil rights, and the instability of their undocumented status in the anti-immigrant climate of the 1980s and ‘90s.
Stedroy Cleghorne and his mother came to the United States from St. Kitts when he was five years old. Since he was so young, he was not aware that the family was undocumented until he started to think about college to pursue his interest in art. In the interview he describes his increasing sense of insecurity and uncertainty, and his mother’s challenges dealing with unscrupulous lawyers as they attempted to regularize their immigration status. He is now an artist and assistant adjunct Professor at the Fashion Institute of Design.