Virtual Tenement Talk – Three Historians Walk Into A Saloon: 1986

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In the next of our Three Historians series, join us on May 7th on YouTube Live as we explore a lesser-known but transformative piece of immigration law: the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. This groundbreaking law created pathways to citizenship and legal permanent status for millions of immigrants, yet created more regulation and enforcement of existing immigration restrictions. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Director for the American Immigration Council, will moderate a discussion with Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, and Charles Kamasaki, Senior Cabinet Advisor for UnidosUS, about the passage of this law which set the stage for current debates about immigration.

• Muzaffar Chishti is a lawyer and Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. Prior to joining MPI, Mr. Chishti was Director of the Immigration Project of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Employees (UNITE).
• Charles Kamasaki serves as a Senior Cabinet Advisor for UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization. He is also a Distinguished Immigration Scholar at Cornell University and author of the definitive book on the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die, a winner of the 2020 International Latino Book Awards.
• Aaron Reichlin-Melnick is Policy Director at the American Immigration Council, where he directs the Council’s administrative and legislative advocacy efforts to provide lawmakers, policymakers, advocates, and the general public with accurate and timely information about the role of immigrants in the United States.

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Three Historians Walk Into a Saloon is our newest virtual Tenement Talk mini-series. Set in our 19th-century recreated lager beer saloon, where tenement dwellers gathered to read newspapers and debate the headlines, this series features today’s leading historians reliving some of the topics discussed long ago and delving into important turning points in our country’s history.