The United States Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (“Act”) signalled the beginning of a new era for United States immigration law.1 The first major revision of the nation’s immigration policy in twenty-one years, the Act has had, and will continue to have, a profound impact both within the United States and abroad. The Act caused an extraordinary surge of apprehension and confusion in foreign communities and domestic workplaces, and has already produced dramatic effects throughout the world barely a year after its passage.
