The Impact of Immigration onnHispanic-AmericansnAs American migrant workers took to the fields in thenfirst harvest season after the passage of the ImmigrationnReform and Control Act of 1986 (the sweeping new federalnlaw to control illegal immigration), Herminio Mufioz, ansixty-five-year-old Mexican-American from Progreso, Texas,ntold the Dallas Times Herald: “We think there is going to bena lot more work for us this year because of the law. In thenpast many of the farmers paid less because they could get allnthe workers they wanted. We have to believe the law isngood.”nGiven that Hispanic-Americans have in recent years beennportrayed as favoring more immigration, not less, was thenopinion expressed by Mr. Mufioz an anomaly, or perhapsnonly the opinion of a small segment of the citizen worknforce? Or was it in fact more representative of Hispanic-nAmerican attitudes than is generally believed? If so, arenthere other misconceptions about Hispanic-Americans andnthe immigration issue, and what accounts for them?nThe fact of the matter is that nearly every poll evernconducted of Hispanic public opinion (as opposed to thenattitudes of Hispanic leaders) has found that Hispanics inn-the United States favor controls on immigration. Whethernone consults the 1983 poll conducted by V. Lance Tarrancenand Peter D. Hart (considered to be “Republican” andn”Democratic” pollsters, respectively), or the Spanish InternationalnNetwork exit poll of Hispanics in the 1984 TexasnDemocratic Primary, or the June 1990 Roper poll, ornvarious others, it is clear that the majority of Hispanics donRichard Estrada is a columnist for the Dallas MorningnNews.n24/CHRONICLESnby Richard Estradannnnot favor higher levels of immigration.nAs is often observed, there is hardly an issue today overnwhich Congress is more ambivalent than whether to limit ornexpand immigration. For example, in addition to thenlinchpin of the 1986 law, employer sanctions, which made itnillegal for an employer to knowingly hire an illegal alienn(thereby putting in place a mechanism with the potential fornremoving the principal attraction of illegal immigration), thenImmigration Reform and Control Act also featured annamnesty provision, by which more than three million illegalnaliens were eventually legalized (thereby feeding hopes thatnthe breaking of U.S. immigration law might be officiallynforgiven yet again in the future). In 1990 Congress followednup on its decision to limit illegal immigration by significantlynraising the levels of legal immigration.nThough their voices have not always been heard, certainlynno ethnic group has been more visible in this policyndebate than Hispanics, of whom at least 22.4 million nownreside in the United States. Hispanics represent 8.4 percentnof the U.S. population. During the 198G’s, when as many,nor nearly as many, immigrants arrived as during any othernten-year period in U.S. history, the number of Hispanicsngrew by fully 7.7 million people (a 56 percent increase). Nonfewer than 54 percent of these additional individuals werenimmigrants. If current demographic trends continue, Hispanicsncould overtake African-Americans as the nation’snlargest minority group by the year 2010.nMore than 60 percent of legal immigrants to the UnitednStates reside in just five states: California, Texas, Florida,nNew York, and Illinois; and perhaps a third of all immigrants,nlegal and illegal, settle in California alone. Alongn