[332][333] Bush also championed and signed into a law the Immigration Act of 1990, a sweeping bipartisan immigration reform act that made it easier for immigrants to legally enter the county, while also granting immigrants fleeing violence the temporary protected status visa, as well as lifted the pre-naturalization English testing process, and finally "eliminated the exclusion of homosexuals under what Congress now deemed the medically unsound classification of "sexual deviant" that was included in the 1965 act."[334][335] Bush stated, "Immigration is not just a link to our past but its also a bridge to America's future".[336]
According to USA Today, the legacy of Bush's presidency was defined by his victory over Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait, and by his presiding over the dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification.[337] Michael Beschloss and Strobe Talbott praise Bush's handling of the USSR, especially how he prodded Gorbachev in terms of releasing control over the satellite states and permitting German unification—and especially a united Germany in NATO.