Immigration has been the forgotten stepchild of the second era of globalization. The United States over the past half century con- sciously and deliberately freed up trade in goods, lifted controls on capital and investment, and urged and pressured other countries to do the same. Its immigration policy, however—the third leg of freer movement of people to accompany the freer movement of goods and capital—developed largely by accident. Legal immigration levels rose sharply beginning in the late 1970s, largely as an unanticipated consequence of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that allowed permanent residents and naturalized citizens to petition for family members to join them. The Immigration Act of 1990 added larger quotas as well for skilled immigrants with no family ties. The United States also tacitly accepted high levels of illegal immigration, whether Mexicans and Central Americans coming across the south- west land border or Chinese, Pakistanis, and Filipinos arriving by air and overstaying tourist or student visas. While there was constant grumbling about the problem of unauthorized immigration, espe- cially from the border states, the pressure to do something about the problem was outweighed by economic interests that opposed the sort of the heavy-handed government intervention that would be required to gain greater control. The landmark 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which continues to loom over the immigration debate today, coupled legalization for nearly 3 million unauthorized immigrants with a largely unmet promise of better bor- der security and workplace enforcement to discourage additional illegal immigration. Read More on Border issues