In order to enforce the quotas that had been established, the INA created the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS served as the federal agency that enforced these limits for the remainder of the 20th century (Immigration, n.d). When Congress passed the INA, an alien was defined as any person lacking citizenship or status as a national of the United States. Different categories of aliens include resident and nonresident, immigrant and nonimmigrant, and documented and undocumented or illegal. "The terms documented and undocumented refer to whether an arriving alien has the proper records and identification for admission into the U.S. Having the proper records and identification typically requires the alien to possess a valid, unexpired passport and either a visa, border crossing identification card, permanent resident card, or a reentry permit" (Immigration, n.d).

The need to limit illegal immigration into the United States prompted Congress to enact the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The IRCA set out to strengthen criminal sanctions for employers who hired illegal aliens while denying illegal aliens federally funded welfare benefits. It also legitimized some aliens through an amnesty program that it created. The act also contained an Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments that set out to limit the practice of marrying in order to obtain citizenship. The Immigration Act of 1990 completely overhauled the INA by equalizing the allocation of visas across foreign nations, eliminating archaic rules, and encouraging worldwide immigration. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act transformed the process of alien entry into the United States. The IIRIRA did away with term entry and replaced it with the term admission. An application for admission occurs whenever an alien arrives in the U.S. regardless of whether...

All applicants must submit to an inspection by U.S. customs, even if they possess an immigrant visa. The IIRIRA also uses the term arriving alien to describe applicant aliens attempting to enter the U.S., regardless of whether they arrive at a designated port, a non-designated point on the border, or are located in U.S. waters and brought to shore (Immigration, n.d).
References

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Immigration. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2009, from Cornell University Law School Web

site: http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/immigration

Johnson, Kevin R. (2004). Hernandez v. Texas: Legacies of Justice and Injustice. Retrieved October 18, 2009, from Social Science Research Network Web site:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=625403

Johnson, Kevin R. (2009). Immigration Law and the Racialization of Latina / Latino. Retrieved October 18, 2009, from Web site:

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/immigr02.htm

Marquez, Benjamin. (n.d.). Latino Identity Politics Research: Problems and Opportunities.

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Rodriguez Dominguez, Victor M. (2009). Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Racialization, Ideology and the "Imagined Latino Community" Retrieved October 18, 2009, from Dissident Voice

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http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/