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House gives more time to illegal immigrants

Aziz Haniffa
India Abroad Correspondent in Washington

The United States House of Representatives has approved by a huge margin an amendment to the immigration bill extending by four months the deadline for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, including many from South Asia, who missed the earlier April 30 deadline to apply for legal residency status.

On May 1, President George W Bush wrote to congressional leaders, urging them to extend the deadline because an estimated 200,000 immigrants who were eligible to file for residency under the Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act had missed the deadline, partly because rules explaining the programme weren't issued until late March.

On April 30, tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants poured into immigration and lawyers' offices across the country and some hurried through wedding ceremonies to apply for residency before the deadline.

But many were left confused or frustrated by the paperwork of their encounters with immigration officials, which led immigration advocates to call for an extension of the deadline because there wasn't enough time to help the residency seekers.

In December last year Congress had adopted section 245(I) or LIFE, which allows illegal immigrants to apply for residency without leaving the country if they could be sponsored by an employer or a close family member, as long as they applied by April 30 and paid a $1,000 penalty.

Hitherto, illegal immigrants had to apply in their native lands. But most illegal immigrants are barred from re-entering the United States for three- to ten-year periods if they leave the country and hence they preferred to remain illegal.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has estimated that there are 640,000 immigrants eligible to become legal residents under this provision, generally because family members are US citizens or legal permanent residents (green card holders).

The House bill that was adopted by a vote of 336-43 with 53 abstentions was authored by Pennsylvania Republican George Gekas and co-sponsored by Representatives Peter King of New York, Christopher Cox of California, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, and James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, all of whom are Republicans.

There were only two Democrats -- Gene Taylor of Mississippi and Peter Visclosky of Indiana -- who joined right-wing conservative Republicans like Dan Burton of Indiana, Duncan Hunter of California, George Nethercutt of Washington and James Saxton of New Jersey, who oppose any kind of immigration, in voting against the extension.

But although the majority of Democrats supported the bill's extension, they were disappointed that it was only for four months. Some had strongly urged that it be extended for at least a year, while members of the Hispanic caucus had wanted it extended indefinitely.

House Minority Leader Rep Richard Gephardt, Missouri Democrat, noting Bush's request for the deadline to be extended, recalled that "since last year, Democrats have been fighting to make this important immigration policy permanent, and we welcome the President's comments in support of immigrants in this country".

"Republicans in Congress blocked that effort last year, however," he charged.

"Unfortunately," Gephardt continued, "instead of marshalling the full powers at his disposal, the President handed the issue to the Republican leadership in Congress, without issuing a specific position on an extension, letting congressional Republicans fill the void on this critical matter."

Thus, he complained, the result was "they have put on the floor a bill that does not provide justice and fair play to immigrants that they need and deserve".

Gephardt explained that "while many Democrats will support this legislation because it is better than no legislation at all, this bill represents a missed opportunity to correct our nation's immigration laws. The bill lets immigrants file status adjustment applications only if they had established work or family ties in America before April 30 of last year.

"It gives immigrants a mere four months extra in which to file their paperwork, a relatively short time bound to cause confusion and hardship in immigrant communities," he added.

Gephardt predicted that "it will force families to be separated from one another for long periods of time in some cases, and will make some immigrants vulnerable to unscrupulous individuals bent on exploiting them for financial gain".

Taking a hefty swipe at Bush, whom he could very well challenge for the presidency in 2004 if he seeks and gets the Democratic nomination, Gephardt said, "While President Bush said he wanted to use immigration laws to strengthen immigrant families, we need action. We hope he will work with us to move his Republican supporters in the Congress toward a fairer, more responsible immigration policy in keeping with the best in our country's traditions and values. We must do better."

Kris Kolluri, legislative director to Gephardt and one of the most senior Indian American congressional aides on Capitol Hill, said his boss "has always said we at least have to do it for one year and then we can figure out what the issue is. That's why we wanted to make this statement that is reflective of our disagreement with the President's attitude and the view of how he approached this whole issue."

Kolluri told India Abroad, "He [Bush] talks so much about 'compassionate conservatism', but we think that he truly missed an opportunity to really tell Congress to support a one-year extension."

According to Kolluri, "Our principle here is that it's a bill that calls for family reunification and it generates revenue and it also saves US consulates in foreign nations time and effort. So at least we should have done it for one year."

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