Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993: Reid’s Bill and Its Fate

The Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993 was a Senate bill, designated S. 1351, introduced by Nevada Senator Harry Reid on August 4, 1993, that proposed to sharply cut both legal and illegal immigration by lowering admission caps, tightening asylum rules, expanding criminal penalties, adding employer verification requirements, restricting benefits for undocumented immigrants, and ending birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who were neither citizens nor lawful permanent residents.¹ The bill never left the Senate Judiciary Committee. Reid later called it the “low point” of his legislative career and spent years working against the policies it contained.²

Reid told the Senate that the bill’s stated purpose was “to curb criminal activity by aliens, to defend against acts of international terrorism, to protect American workers from unfair labor competition, and to relieve pressure on public services by strengthening border security and stabilizing immigration into the United States.”¹ He argued that “paring back immigration to more manageable levels would necessitate some long-overdue changes in the way immigrants are selected,” contending that the existing system gave excessive preference to extended family members.³ The measure was organized into ten titles and touched immigration, criminal, customs, tax, and national security law.

Cuts to Legal Immigration

The bill called for a steep reduction in annual legal admissions. The House companion version set explicit yearly targets of 300,000 family-sponsored immigrants and 40,000 employment-based immigrants, against roughly 800,000 total admissions at the time.⁴ Refugee admissions would be capped at 50,000 per year.⁵

Ending Birthright Citizenship for Some U.S.-Born Children

The most politically charged section was Section 1001, which sought to reinterpret the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause. Under the bill, a child born in the United States to a mother who was neither a citizen nor a lawful permanent resident, and who was eligible for citizenship in another country, would not be a U.S. citizen at birth. The bill’s language stated that such a child “shall be considered as born subject to the jurisdiction of that foreign country and not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States within the meaning of section 1 of such Article.”⁶ Reid framed the change as removing an incentive for pregnant women to enter the country illegally to obtain citizenship for their children.

Tighter Asylum Rules

The bill imposed short deadlines and fast screening on asylum seekers. An applicant would have to file a notice of intent to seek asylum within 30 days of entering the United States and submit a formal application within 45 days, with the only exception being clear and convincing evidence of changed conditions in the applicant’s home country. At ports of entry, immigration officers would exclude arriving individuals without proper documentation who did not express a fear of persecution or an intent to seek asylum, with no hearing. Anyone who did express fear would be referred to an asylum officer for a “credible fear” determination; a negative finding meant exclusion without further proceedings.⁷

Filing a frivolous asylum application, defined to include fraud or willful misrepresentation of a material fact, would make the applicant permanently ineligible for any benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Asylum hearings were to be nonadversarial, with transcripts available within 10 days and decisions issued within 30 days.⁷

Expanded Criminal Alien Provisions

The legislation significantly broadened the definition of “aggravated felony,” a category that triggers mandatory deportation. Added offenses included money laundering involving more than $100,000, various firearms and explosives crimes, crimes of violence carrying a sentence of at least five years, theft or burglary offenses with possible sentences of five years or more, fraud or tax evasion resulting in losses over $200,000, and alien smuggling for commercial advantage. RICO offenses, sabotage, treason, and threats to undercover intelligence agents were also added.⁷ Alien smuggling would itself be brought under RICO, and wiretaps would be authorized for smuggling investigations.⁵

The bill authorized expedited deportation for non-permanent-resident aliens convicted of felonies and required local law enforcement to notify the Immigration and Naturalization Service upon the felony arrest of any alien.⁵ Courts would be largely barred from reviewing exclusion determinations, with limited habeas corpus petitions as the sole avenue of judicial review.⁷

Border Enforcement, Benefits, and Employer Rules

Title VII called for a significant increase in Border Patrol personnel, a new border crossing fee, and a Border Control Trust Fund to finance enforcement.⁵ It also directed the Secretary of State to arrange the transport of deportable or excludable aliens to a point at least 500 kilometers from the U.S. border in contiguous countries, a form of interior repatriation intended to make re-entry more difficult.⁷

Title V restricted government benefits, including unemployment benefits, for undocumented immigrants. Title VI revised employer sanctions, added new work-eligibility document requirements, and set up a Social Security telephone verification system to confirm employment authorization. The bill also mandated use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database as a condition of federal program assistance and created penalties for noncitizens voting in federal or state elections.⁵

What Happened to the Bill

S. 1351 was introduced, read twice, and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it stayed. The bill drew three Senate cosponsors, and the last recorded action was the entry of Reid’s introductory remarks into the Congressional Record on September 20, 1993. No Senate hearings on the bill appear in the legislative record.⁵

A House companion, H.R. 3320, was introduced on October 20, 1993, by Nevada Democrat James Bilbray and drew 37 cosponsors. The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on International Law, Immigration, and Refugees held a hearing on February 23, 1994, but the bill went no further.⁸ Its text closely tracked the Senate version, including the immigration caps, asylum filing deadlines, expanded aggravated felony definitions, and limits on judicial review.⁴

The bill itself died in committee, but many of its themes returned in later law. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, signed by President Clinton, adopted measures along similar lines, including expedited removal procedures, expanded grounds for deportation, and new employer verification requirements.

Reid’s Reversal

Reid later became one of the Senate’s leading voices for comprehensive immigration reform and a legalization path for undocumented immigrants, and he repeatedly disavowed his 1993 bill. In an April 2006 Senate floor speech, he called the legislation a “low point of my legislative career.”² Elsewhere he described it as the “biggest mistake I ever made” as an elected official, adding, “I didn’t understand the issue.”⁶ Reid said his change of view was driven by a Las Vegas town hall where he was confronted by Hispanic friends and community members, and by his wife, who opposed the bill. “I’ve done everything to undo my embarrassment,” he said.³

The 1993 bill kept resurfacing as a political weapon. Senator Jeff Sessions cited Reid’s 1993 floor remarks during a 2006 Senate immigration debate to argue for restrictionist policies, and during the 2010 Nevada Senate race the National Republican Senatorial Committee labeled Reid a “flip-flopper” on birthright citizenship.² The proposal returned to attention again during the 2015–2016 presidential campaign, when analysts pointed to Reid’s provision as a precedent for candidates proposing to end birthright citizenship.⁶

1
GovInfo. S. 1351 – Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993
2
The New York Times. Reid’s ’93 Immigration Plan in News Again
3
Las Vegas Sun. Immigration Push Reid Regrets
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GovInfo. H.R. 3320 – Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993
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Congress.gov. S. 1351 – Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993
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FactCheck.org. Trump Challenges Birthright Citizenship
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GovInfo. S. 1351 Full Text
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Congress.gov. H.R. 3320 – All Actions