Final answer:
In August 1931, the California state legislature passed a law prohibiting companies doing business with the government from employing unauthorized aliens, as a part of early efforts to control immigration through employment regulations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The California state legislature enacted a law making it illegal for any company doing business with the government to employ "aliens" on public jobs in August 1931. This pre-dates the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which was a broader federal response to the issue of unauthorized workers, and made it a crime to knowingly hire anyone not legally permitted to live and work in the United States. It was an era marked by discriminatory policies, such as those against Chinese immigrants, which eventually culminated in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Continuing down the timeline, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 sought to curb illegal immigration by requiring employers to verify the eligibility of their employees' legal status in the U.S., demonstrating a long history of legislative actions aimed at regulating immigration through employment.