workers who gained legal status reported more months and weeks of farm work in the previous
year on average than their cohorts who did not gain legal status. Although workers had similar
foreign farm work experience, there was a sizeable difference in US farm work experience. On
average, legalized workers reported 16.7 years of US farm work compared to 6 years for workers
who were not legalized. Not surprisingly, legalized workers had migrated to the US much earlier
(~12 years more) and had worked with their current employers for much longer periods (~4
years) in comparison to their cohorts who did not gain legal status. On average, 62% of the
foreign farm workforce had migrated to the US to live and work after 1986. Among legalized
workers, only 26% had migrated to US after 1986, whereas approximately 88% of unauthorized
workers had entered the US since that period.
Tables 3 reports the estimated choice model results from the MTE algorithm. The
instruments included in this model are farm work weeks, years with employer, years since
immigration, after 1986 and weeks spent abroad. The characteristics that significantly increase
the likelihood of legalization (treatment) are years with employer, English, and years since
immigration; those that decrease the likelihood of treatment are farm work weeks, after 2001 and
weeks spent abroad. The after 2001 dummy variable was included to distinguish between the
pre- and post- 9/11 periods, and the after 1986 dummy was included to distinguish between the
periods when workers first entered the US to live or work. The latter reflects the broad
legalization through the SAWs program for those who were in the US and working prior to the
passage of IRCA in 1986, and the relative difficulty of acquiring legal status since 1986. The
direction of influence signaled by the after 2001 coefficient suggests that foreign farm workers
were less likely to gain legal status following the September 2001 terrorist attacks; this makes
sense given that enforcement efforts and security were heightened in the US following that
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