Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986

The First Amnesty

 

 

A Personal Experience

 

When the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 became law I was a Criminal Investigator with Salt Lake City INS. 

 

My girlfriend (now my wife), was an Examiner with the local Legalization office.  After a little while in her position she started to recognize  patterns of fraud, particularly in the Special Agricultural Worker (SAW) applications. It appeared that some farmers were committing fraud.  They were providing letters attesting that some applicants for status as a SAW had worked at their farms when in fact they had not

 

I found that while the information found in the application was confidential with respect to the applicant, that information could be used in a criminal prosecution against anyone who knowingly and willfully supplied a false writing or document in support of such fraudulent application.

 

With the go-ahead from INS management and the U.S. Attorney, I gathered leads from the Legalization office and then opened a case called “Operation Easy Money”. Over the next few months we conducted undercover operations, consensual monitoring, and personal interviews with dozens of individuals involved in the illegal activity.  The investigation resulted in the conviction in Federal Court of fifteen defendants who had issued the fraudulent letters.  The Legalization office went on to deny over 1,000 applications that had been filed with fraudulent supporting documents.

 

One of the cases involved a farmer who had a 3 acre farm in West Jordan, Utah. He sold over 200 affidavits at $50.00 apiece, wherein he swore that each of the applicants had worked for him for more than the required 90 days. He pleaded guilty and admitted that only 2 people had actually worked for him.

 

Another case involved an attorney and his wife, and a local immigrant Mexican farmer. The attorney and wife conspired with the farmer for him to travel to his hometown in Mexico and recruit as many people as he could, to be brought illegally to the U.S. He did, and returned with 36 Mexicans to Tijuana, where he met with the attorney and wife at a hotel. The two filled out applications for the next several days, then the farmer signed the supporting affidavits. Each of the beneficiaries paid the attorney varying amounts of around $200.00 with the understanding that they would pay more later. They were admitted to the U.S. at San Diego and rode a bus to Salt Lake City, Utah.  Ultimately, the three pleaded guilty and the applications were denied.

 

Those are but two of the specific patterns of fraud revealed by the investigation, but they are illustrative of the point:  fraud was rampant.  INS Salt Lake City was not a big office, yet it had widespread problems.  Even legitimate farmers (“legitimate” in that they were really farmers) were forging other farmers signatures on the affidavits. It became such a joke that SAW and fraud became one word, “SAWFRAUD”.

 

I could go on and on. The above cited cases were all worked by me from the Salt Lake City office. There were many more. Because of discouragement from upper management, I am told, there were not many other offices that worked these cases. The only other office that I am aware of that worked “SAWFRAUD” cases was Boise Idaho.

(Editor’s Note:  A few other offices, Portland, OR for instance, worked some large cases.  The thousands of other, smaller cases, were never given any attention.  Legalization fraud investigation was simply not a priority for the agency.)

 

 

 

Subsequent Amnesties

 

When IRCA 1986 was being researched and prepared for Congress experts claimed that no more than 300,000 illegal aliens would qualify. During the 10 year period during which applications were accepted after 1986 2,684,892 illegal aliens were granted amnesty.  And another 160,000 spouses and children of those amnestied aliens received amnesty under IMMACT 1990, a successor statute.

 

Other follow-on statutes provided additional amnesties, as follow:

 

The 245(i) amnesty of 1994 along with several extensions thru 1997 added another 578,000 illegal aliens to the amnesty count.

 

The NACARA Amnesty of 1994 added another 966,480 illegal aliens to the amnesty count.

 

The Haitian amnesty of 1998 added another 125,000 illegal aliens to the amnesty count.

 

The Late Amnesty of 2000 added another 400,000.

 

The Life Act Amnesty of 2000 added another 900,000.

 

That adds up to 5,814,372 illegal aliens that have received amnesty in The United States since passage of IRCA 1986 that was originally intended for no more than 300,000.

 

Timothy Waller

Special Agent, USINS

Retired