Immigration Act of 1990

Identification Immigration law that significantly altered U.S. immigration policy

Date Enacted November 11, 1990; went into effect October 1, 1991

The Immigration Act of 1990 made important changes in U.S. immigration law that resulted in major changes in the size and composition of immigrant flows to the United States.

The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 ended the racial/ethnic quota system for issuing immigration visas that heavily favored Northern and Western European countries. The Immigration Act of 1990, while retaining the focus on reducing racial/ethnic bias, initiated comprehensive changes in U.S. immigration law. The 1965 law had limited annual visas to 290,000 worldwide; the 1990 act raised the number to 700,000 for the first three years, and 675,000 thereafter. Three categories of visas were distinguished—employment-based, family-sponsored, and a new category called “diversity visas”—and each had numerical restrictions. The maximum number of the first two categories was raised to 26,620 per country compared to 20,000 annually under the 1965 law.

The total number of annual visas based on specified occupational categories was increased from 54,000 to 140,000 under the 1990 act, and a larger proportion were allocated for skilled workers. Family-sponsored visas were limited to 480,000 for relatives of both U.S. citizens and “legal permanent resident aliens.” Parents, spouses, and minor children of U.S. citizens were included in that number, and, since there was no numerical restriction for these immediate relatives, a minimum of 226,000 visas was established for other family members. Therefore, if more than 254,000 immediate family members of U.S. citizens applied for visas, the total number would be increased.

Diversity visas were created to provide additional visas to countries that had received relatively few in the past. The 1965 law was designed to address racial/ethnic discrimination, but its “family reunification” provisions still favored countries that had received the most visas in the past. The 1990 act provided for 55,000 visas to be issued to countries that had received fewer than 50,000 visas during the previous five years. Each of these countries was limited to 7 percent of the total, or 3,850 diversity visas. Lotteries were to be held to determine which applicants would receive the visas. Qualified applicants had to have worked at a skilled occupation for two years or more and have at least a high school education.

Impact

Since October, 1991, both family-based and employment-based annual immigration has increased significantly, the latter showing the greater increases, with a larger proportion of professional and technical workers. Immigrant flows have become more racially/ethnically diverse because of the increase of per-country visa allocations, diversity visas, and an important change regarding family-sponsored visas. Under the 1990 act, visas for the family members of legal permanent resident aliens were given a high priority, the number of visas for their spouses and minor children was significantly increased, and three-fourths of these visas were exempted from countries’ total limits. Research has shown that changes in the number and diversity of immigrants since 1990 would have been much less pronounced if the 1965 law had remained in effect.

Bibliography

DeLaet, Debra L. U.S. Immigration Policy in an Age of Rights. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2000.

Tichenor, Daniel J. Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2002.