Project Jobs: Reagan, the INS, and Undocumented Workers in 1982

Abstract

Using digitized archival material, newspaper articles, and court documents, this thesis examines a 1982 federal deportation campaign in the United States called “Project Jobs,” which resulted in the apprehension of an estimated 5,400 undocumented workers, and the ultimate deportation of 4,000 of them. The operation targeted nine major U.S. cities with the goal of freeing up jobs for unemployed U.S. citizens during a recession. While Operation Wetback targeted undocumented workers in the agricultural sector, Project Jobs targeted high-paying urban jobs that were intended to be desirable for U.S. citizens. Although the operation received substantial publicity at the time, it has since been forgotten, and is virtually absent from the current historiography. By linking the operation to the economic recession in 1981, the suffering reputation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the Reagan administration’s four-year struggle to get the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 passed through Congress, this thesis argues that Project Jobs was a significant event in U.S. history, with substantial consequences for undocumented workers in urban America.