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Bush Proposes Giving Immigrants More Time to Make Status Legal


By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS



ASHINGTON, May 1 — President Bush urged Congress today to extend an
April 30 deadline on legislation that allowed many illegal
immigrants to apply for legal residency without first having to
return to their country of origin.

 Mr. Bush said that about 200,000 immigrants who had been eligible
to file to adjust their status failed to do so in time. He blamed,
in part, the government's failure to issue instructions until late
March on how the provision would be carried out.

 Tens of thousands of illegal foreigners poured into immigration
centers and lawyers' offices on Monday to take advantage of the
provision — Section 245(i) — in the final hours before the
deadline. Many left confused or frustrated by paperwork or their
encounters with immigration officials.

 The provision allows illegal immigrants to apply for residency
while remaining in the United States, provided they pay a $1,000
penalty. Normally, immigrants are required to apply at American
consulates in their home countries. But that poses a risk: illegal
immigrants to the United States may be barred from returning for up
to 10 years.

 Immigration officials predicted that more than 600,000 immigrants
would seek to take advantage of the provision. Applicants are
required to be sponsored by an employer or a close family member.

 In a letter to Congressional leaders, Mr. Bush said his request
for an extension would aid families that had been divided by
immigration barriers or fear of deportation.

 "I encourage the Congress to consider whether there was adequate
time for persons eligible under Section 245(i) to apply for
adjustment of status before the filing deadline expired yesterday,"
Mr. Bush wrote.

 "It remains in our national interest to legitimize those resident
immigrants, eligible for legal status, and to welcome them as full
participants of our society," he added.

 The president did not say how long he would like the extension to
be. One bill, which is sponsored by the New York Representatives
Peter T. King, a Republican, and Eliot L. Engel, a Democrat, seeks
a six-month extension.

 "I'm really delighted that he's requested it," said Mr. Engel, who
estimated that 75 percent of the work in his district offices —
which include the Bronx — involves immigration.

 "There are so many families separated, and I think we should do
something to reunite them," Mr. Engel said.

 Mr. Bush said his action had grown out of talks with Mexican
officials on immigration matters to "ensure a more orderly, legal
and humane migration flow between our countries."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/02/politics/02INS.html?ex=989829215&ei=1&en=53ebab4576d7c417

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