Advocates have called for undocumented residents in the United States to be viewed as assets to America. This is forty years after the United States created a one-time path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Undocumented residents: 1986 immigration law granted citizenship to nearly 2.7 million people
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 enabled nearly 2.7 million people to earn citizenship. But since then, every major congressional effort at comprehensive immigration reform has collapsed.
According to a researcher, two women’s stories illustrate what legalisation can achieve and what the country loses when it denies that opportunity.
Rosario arrived from Mexico in the early 1960s, when Mexican nationals could still cross freely. After her husband abandoned her and their two-month-old twins, she found herself homeless and undocumented.
She also worked at a convenience store, earning less than minimum wage. She is still making in one day what a factory worker in Juárez earns in a week.
The 1986 law changed everything. At age 26, Rosario successfully applied for residency and later citizenship.
She earned her GED, then a bachelor’s degree, then a master’s, all while working and raising her children. She built a career in school district management and bought a home.
“Now she could invite her grown children to her home for family gatherings. The woman who was once a homeless single mother had saved enough money to buy a house,” the author writes.
Immigrant stories reveal what legalisation can achieve
The Honduran single mother crossed legally at El Paso with her one-year-old son after a sympathetic official allowed her entry. The promised immigration court summons never arrived.
Decades later, María has never committed a crime. She opened her own small business and pays taxes.
She cannot vote, obtain a driver’s licence, or visit family in Honduras. She will never receive Social Security or Medicare, no matter how much she has paid in.
“Her diverging stories illustrate the power of legalisation to put a family on more stable footing,” the author argues.
With the 40th anniversary of IRCA marking a missed milestone, advocates say the question is no longer whether undocumented residents contribute to America. Rather, it is about whether the nation will finally treat them as the assets they have always been.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, AccessLex Institute has announced its nine 2026 MAX by AccessLex® Grand Prize Scholarship winners, awarding $270,000 in direct tuition relief and loan repayment support to law students in the US.
