They introduced a bill in 1982 that passed the Senate but languished in the House, then reintroduced a version of it three more times in the next four years. A viable immigration bill was a kind of legislative Rubik’s Cube. Organized labor approved of employer sanctions but bristled at expanded legal immigration. Mexican American advocacy groups, which supported legalization of the undocumented, opposed employer sanctions for fear of discrimination against Hispanic workers. For every law-and-order type championing increased enforcement, there was another congressman whose most powerful
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