ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, with particular attention to provisions affecting undocumented women with dependents. It examines how public perceptions of immigrant women as welfare drainers have influenced the law's creation and implementation. The chapter presents the case of Zambrano v. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in which a formal charge was made that the INS's implementation of IRCA discriminated against women by not making legalization available to them on an equal basis with men. It argues that discrimination was deliberate, with the intent of maintaining the women in the secondary labor force. The chapter reviews the historical precedent for the use of government policy to regulate the labor of women of color, that is, the 'employable mother' rules. The parallel between IRCA and the 'employable mother' rules illustrates how women of color and immigrant women have been denied access to adequate means of providing low-wage work for their children.
