HispanicVista Columnists
New Year, New Immigration?
By Erika Robles
There has been several rumors going around about President Bush's plan to
propose an amnesty or reinstate a provision in the near future to allow
immigrants who entered unlawfully into the United States or entered with
permission but did not stay in lawful status to adjust their status to that
of a legal permanent resident without having to leave the country to do so.
In 1994, section 245(i) was added to immigration law. Under this provision,
a person who –if it weren't for his or her illegal status- would qualify to
immigrate (for instance, a spouse of a U.S. citizen), may adjust status in
the United States –after having paid a fine- without having to go to their
home country to do so.
However, Congress allowed this section to expire in November 1997. In
December 2000 –while President Clinton was in office- the Legal Immigration
and Family Equity Act (LIFE) and LIFE Act Amendment of section 245(i) was
passed and signed into law. Instead of a full restoration of section 245(i),
it merely provided a short four-month in which eligible immigrants could
apply to adjust their status while in the
U.S. as long as they could pay the $1,000
fine.
As the Immigration law stands right now, immigrants who entered the U.S.
illegally and since then have become eligible to adjust their status due to
marrying a U.S. citizen, for example, have to leave the U.S. in order to
obtain their green cards. They also need to apply for a waiver –once they
are in their home country- and establish an extreme hardship to the
immigrant's U.S. citizen or Legal permanent resident family member. At the
moment, these waivers are taking between 6 months to a year to either get
approved or denied. This means that the qualifying immigrant would have to
spend a long period of time away from his or her U.S. family. It also brings
financial constraints to both, the immigrant who is away and the U.S.
citizen spouse and/or children left behind. Furthermore, if the waiver were
to be denied, the immigrant will not be able to come back to the
U.S.
for ten years. It is important to mention that people applying under this
section –if it is ever reinstated- would be screened for criminal offenses,
health problems, the potential of becoming a public charge, fraud,
misrepresentation and all other grounds of inadmissibility, the same way
they would be screened at the U.S. Consulate in their home country.
There are numerous benefits about this section. The most important one is
family unity. I strongly oppose family separation –especially for such a
long period of time. Immigrants on the brink of becoming legal permanent
residents should be able to apply for their adjustment –their green cards-
in the United States.
The Immigration Service would also get a financial gain out of this. Given
the fact that each applicant would have to pay a processing fee of at least
$1,000, the Immigration Services would generate revenue at no cost to
taxpayers. The only main difference is that these people wouldn't need to
leave their families, jobs and stability behind.
Since the LIFE Act was signed into law, there has been several attempts on
behalf of bipartisan senators to reinstate that particular section of the
Immigration Law. In the year 2001 Sen. Daschle and Sen. Kennedy co-sponsored
a legislation to extend Section 245(i) for one year (S.778). In 2002 the
same two Senators co-sponsored the Uniting Families Act of 2002 (S.2493).A
bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide a limited
extension of the program under section 245(i) of that Act.
Unfortunately, they were never passed into law. Although such legislation
would be ore than welcome, there is no expectation that Section 245 (i) will
be reinstated –or extended- any time in the immediate future. At the moment,
such pro-immigration legislation is given little priority and support in
light of the focus on security issues. On my next article, I will write
about the so-called Guest Program Law Bush has been wanting to pass since
last year.
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Erika Robles, a contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com), is a writer and translator now living in Eugene, Oregon. She was educated in Mexico City; London, England; and Melbourne, Australia. Contact at: erobleswords@yahoo.com Web page: http://www.geocities.com/oakspublishing