In the 1990s, political opposition in the United States rose against two government policies not previously linked in policy rationale or public debate: affirmative action preferences and large-scale immigration. Historically, reform movements in civil rights and immigration policy had differed significantly in their coalition base, reformist goals, rationales for government intervention, patterns of agency implementation, and communities of policy expertise. Yet both reform drives, sharing common foundations in liberal nondiscrimination theory and constitutional tradition, won major legislative victories in the 1960s. These laws produced unintended consequences: hard affirmative action programs involving minority preferences and mass immigration from developing nations. Immigrants were participating increasingly as minorities eligible for affirmative action remedies originally developed to compensate African Americans for past discrimination under slavery and segregation. These consequences help to explain the rise of intraminority tensions and White native opposition.
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