Employer Sanctions for Hiring Illegal Aliens: A Simplistic Solution to a Complex Problem
![handle is hein.journals/nwjilb6 and id is 213 raw text is: COMMENTS
Employer Sanctions for Hiring Illegal
Aliens: A Simplistic Solution to a
Complex Problem
I. INTRODUCTION
United States immigration policy over the course of the last 200
years has evolved from one of open arms to one of racial and qualitative
restrictions to one of qualitative and quantitative restrictions.1 These
shifts, fueled by racism, domestic economic conditions including an end
to war-time labor shortages, and domestic resource limitations, have re-
sulted in an inability to absorb a new wave of immigrants.2 Proposals for
enforcing immigration restrictions through sanctions against employers
who hire undocumented aliens have surfaced periodically since 1951.1
There are an estimated three and one-half to six milliona undocu-
mented aliens5 living in the United States. While nationals from many
1 See Salinas & Torres, The Undocumented Mexican Alien: A Legal, Social and Economic
Analysis, 13 Houston L. Rev. 863, 866-68 (1976). See generally SENATE COMM. ON THE JUDICIARY,
96TH CONG., 2D SESS., SELECTED READINGS ON U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY AND LAW 436-43
(Comm. Print 1980) [hereinafter cited as SELECTED READINGS].
2 Lansing & Alabart, Reagan Administration Proposals on Immigration: The Problem of the
Undocumented Alien in the US., 13 CAL. W. INT'L L.J. 1, 8 (1983).
3 THE KNOWING EMPLOYMENT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOM-
MITTEE ON IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE POLICY OF THE SENATE COMM. ON THE JUDICIARY,
97TH CONG., 1ST SESS. 17 (1981) [hereinafter cited as KNOWING EMPLOYMENT].
4 SELECTED READINGS, supra note 1, at 5-10; See also Collin, Immigration Bill Chances Fade,
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 5, 1983, § 1, at 4, col. I (charts growth of entire Hispanic population in the
United States).
5 This comment will use the terms undocumented and illegal alien interchangeably to refer
to aliens who either are in the United States without the permission of the Immigration and Natural-
ization Service or have violated the conditions of their stay in the United States by working. No
derogatory connotation is meant by illegal. Of course, it should be noted that an alien is not here
illegally until so judged in a hearing.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/nwjilb6&div=11&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Employer Sanctions for Hiring Illegal Aliens: A Simplistic Solution to a Complex Problem
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