This concern was also a major factor in the admission of refugees from the unsuccessful Hungarian revolution of October 1956. Almost 40,000 Hungarian refugees were admitted to the United States, 6,130 of them having visas while the remainder were under the parole provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“History of U.S. Immigration Laws”). This was a major change from previous admissions of immigrants and or refugees into American …show more content…
The Immigration Reform and Control Act was designed to balance public concerns about increasing illegal immigration with business’s need for cheap labor and the need to address issues of racial and ethnic discrimination. The final bill focused less on restricting the numbers of immigrants than on putting existing undocumented aliens on the path to citizenship and on deterring further illegal immigration by strengthening border control and employer sanctions (Leckrone). This new piece of legislation legalized aliens who had unlawfully resided in the United States since January 1, 1982, and worked to safeguard them by establishing sanctions that prohibited employers from hiring, recruiting, and referring aliens known to be unauthorized to work in the United States. Also created was a new classification of temporary agricultural workers and the legalization of such workers. The act also and established a visa waiver pilot program allowing the admission of certain nonimmigrants without visas. Furthermore, with this law came separate legislation stipulating that immigrants with marriage-based status be conditional for two years, and that they must apply for permanent status within 90 days after their second-year anniversary. The various changes that made up this law helped to make the law what it is