While immigration has played an important role in the building
             and formation of America, new federal laws have resulted in mass
             immigration. Throughout history, Congress has enacted laws and has
             had to amend them to control the flow of both legal and illegal
             In 1948, legislation was first enacted in an effort to control the
             number of applicants fleeing persecution; it permitted 205,000
             refugees to enter the United States. In 1952, Congress set in place
             major regulations setting parameters and quotas mostly for the
             eastern hemisphere and leaving the western hemisphere unrestricted.
             In 1953, congress was again faced with having to increase the
             number of refugees from 205,000 to 415,000. In order to qualify as a
             refugee one must have a well founded fear of persecution, not be
             firmly resettled in a third country, and must not be an aggravated
             felon. In 1965, the national origin's quota system was abolished but
             still maintained was the principle of numerical by establishing
             170,000 hemispheric and 20,000 per country ceilings and a seven
             category preference system. This system included the spouses of
             lawful resident aliens, brother and sisters of United States citizens,
             skilled and unskilled workers. To present date spouses and minor
             children of US citizens are exempt any quota system. In 1980, the
             refugee act removed them from the preference category and
             established clear criteria and procedures for their admission. In
             1986, Congress was faced with yet another national crisis which it
             attempted to resolve by enacting the Immigration Reform and Control
             Act (IRCA). IRCA was considered to be the most comprehensive act
             which was to grant amnesty to those who had resided in the US
             illegally since January 1, 1982, (2) created sanctions against persons
             and companies that hired illegal aliens, (3) created the a new
             classification of temporary agriculture and granted amne...