Romano L. Mazzoli

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Romano L. "Ron" Mazzoli (born November 2, 1932, in Louisville, Kentucky) represented Kentucky's Third Congressional District (Louisville, Kentucky and other parts of Jefferson County, Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 through 1995 as a Democrat. He was the primary architect, with Sen. Alan Simpson, of major immigration reform legislation.

Mazzoli was born in Louisville. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, in 1954 and from the Notre Dame law school, first in his class, in 1960. Mazzoli served in the Kentucky Senate from 1968 through 1970.

Mazzoli was Chairman of the House of Representatives' Immigration, International Law and Refugees Subcommittee for twelve years. He also served on the Small Business, Intelligence and District of Columbia Committees.

Mazzoli authored the Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Reform and Control Act, later known as the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, and co-sponsored it with Republican Senator Alan Simpson. The bill enacted the first U.S. laws to sanction employers who hired undocumented aliens; it also granted an amnesty for aliens already living and working in the United States. After five years of debate and compromise, the Simpson-Mazzoli bill was ultimately signed into law on November 7, 1986.

Since leaving Congress, Mazzoli has taught at Bellarmine University and was the Ralph S. Petrilli Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Louisville Law School for the Fall 1995 semester, returning later to the law school as faculty. In 2002, Mazzoli was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government

In September 2006 he and Simpson co-authored an article that appeared in the Washington Post revisiting their 1986 immigration legislation in the current political climate.

Mazzoli and his wife, the former Helen Dillon, have two children (Michael Mazzoli and Andrea Mazzoli Doyle) and two granddaughters (Katie and Courtney Doyle).