Extend the Amnesty

Enrollment in the amnesty program of the 1986 immigration law is running below expectations. That is acknowledged by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and is emphasized by those helping undocumented aliens to implement the protections of the law. But agreement on the problem has not led to agreement on the remedy.

At this point, with six weeks remaining before the May 4 deadline, it is clear that the best remedy would be an extension of the deadline. Legislation to do just that has been introduced in Congress. The pressure of other business and a reluctance to tinker with the legislation are stalling the reform effort. That can be overcome. To do otherwise would only erode the value of this excellent, although excessively restrictive, measure. The deadline extension would not weaken, but rather would reinforce, the original legislation.

The Immigration Service has offered an alternative. Under new regulations announced by Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III and INS Commissioner Alan Nelson, short-form applications for amnesty will be permitted, allowing applicants an extra 60 days to collect documentation and medical information required before formal eligibility interviews are conducted by the INS.

Administrative shifts of this sort can help. Those working closest with the undocumented aliens, however, report that the administrative remedies do not address all of the problems that have slowed the flow of applications. They can correct some of the problems, but enrollment will still fall far short of the goal expressed by Meese “that every single person who is eligible for legalization will have applied” by May 4.

At last report, about 1.1 million persons had applied for the amnesty, more than 693,000 had been approved, and an additional 320,000 had applied for the special farm-worker program. Those figures contrast with the estimate of the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace that the number of eligible aliens--those living in the United States before Jan. 1, 1982--is 1.8 million to 2.5 million. Enrollment in Los Angeles is about half the estimated number of eligible persons, according to the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles--a coalition of more than 40 organizations working with immigrants.

Congressional sponsors of an extension have agreed to amend their request for a one-year extension to six months, which would result in a deadline on general amnesty at the same time as the deadline for applications under the farm-worker program. Fair enough.