House Votes to Suspend Deporting Illegal Aliens of 3 Nations : Immigration: Sponsors of the measure hope that the addition of Chinese students will help get it through the Senate, where similar measures have been defeated in the past.

The House voted Wednesday to suspend for three years the deportation of illegal immigrants from three nations recently torn by civil strife--China, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

It is estimated by the government that there are as many as 800,000 Salvadoran immigrants, 200,000 Nicaraguans and 45,000 Chinese nationals currently living in the United States, either on temporary visas or illegally. About half of the immigrants from El Salvador are believed to be living in California.

The legislation, which passed 258 to 162, represents an effort on behalf of aliens from El Salvador and Nicaragua to capitalize on the outpouring of sympathy that Americans have had for Chinese students who do not want to return to their homeland in the wake of the massacre last June in Beijing’s Tian An Men Square.

Although the House twice before has approved legislation to halt deportation of illegal immigrants from El Salvador and Nicaragua on grounds that they are political refugees, those efforts failed to win support in the Senate. Sponsors of the new bill hope to soften opposition to legalizing aliens from the two Central American countries by adding Chinese immigrants to the bill.

Rick Swartz of the National Immigration Forum, which has lobbied for several years on behalf of aliens from El Salvador and Nicaragua, said that the addition of the Chinese students to the bill succeeded in turning around a number of key opponents such as Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.).

“The tragedy of Tian An Men Square created new political opportunities,” Swartz said.

The bill delays for three years the deportation of all Chinese, Nicaraguan and Salvadoran citizens who were residing in the United States as of July 1. In addition, it covers Chinese nationals who were living in the United States as of June 5--the day after the massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing--and who already have requested such action under a one-year extension program established earlier by President Bush.

While Chinese student organizations are supporting the House-passed measure co-authored by Reps. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) and Bruce A. Morrison (D-Conn.), they have emphasized that the bill does not satisfy their biggest complaint with the current law--a requirement that they must pledge to return to China for two years once their visas expire.

Zhao Haicheng, a postdoctoral student in biochemistry at Harvard and head of the Committee on Chinese Student Affairs, said that many Chinese students in the United States are afraid to speak out against the government of their homeland as long as they are committed to returning to China in the future.

“Even if it gives us three years, no matter how many years it would be, then (students) will still have this requirement (to return) in the back of their minds,” said Zhao. He said that the “first priority” of the Chinese students is final passage of a measure authored by California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) that waives the return requirement.

Although the Pelosi bill has passed both the House and Senate, a House-Senate conference committee has been unable to resolve differences over an amendment by Sen. William L. Armstrong (R-Colo.) aimed at China’s population control program. It would give special consideration to Chinese citizens who fear deportation on grounds that they have refused to abort a pregnancy or undergo sterilization.

Committee sources said that the negotiators are nearing a compromise on the Pelosi bill that could allow it to be reported to the House and Senate for final passage within the next week.

Officially, the Administration does not oppose the Pelosi bill. But three State Department officials active in U.S. policy toward China have voiced strong opposition to it in recent weeks, arguing that the Morrison-Moakley bill goes far enough.

These State Department opponents contend that waiving the return requirement for Chinese students would cause China to retaliate by cutting off future educational exchanges with the United States. They indicated that they are hoping support for the Pelosi bill in Congress will dwindle once the Morrison-Moakley measure passes.

“Waiving that requirement would go to the fundamental core of the exchange program with China,” said one State Department official, who declined to be identified. “A three-year extension would not.”

Despite Administration efforts to use the new bill to defeat Pelosi’s measure, Zhao said the Chinese students still support the Morrison-Moakley bill. Nor do they resent the efforts of the Salvadorans and Nicaraguans to take advantage of their plight, he said.

“We feel sympathetic to those people as well,” Zhao said. “We know the problems they would face if they go back.”

The Morrison-Moakley bill not only delays deportation of Chinese, Nicaraguan and Salvadoran refugees here for three years, but it also establishes a legal framework under which the Administration could take action to permit immigrants from other war-torn nations to obtain a ruling from the Justice Department that they will be treated as political refugees.

Aliens from Nicaragua, El Salvador and China would be required to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service within nine months of the bill’s enactment to be eligible. While the bill delays deportation, it does not give them permanent resident alien status or entitle them to welfare benefits.

Currently, residents of countries torn by civil strife are permitted to apply individually for refugee status or asylum. According to members of Congress, there is a backlog of 90,000 applications at the INS from aliens seeking asylum.

House conservatives strongly opposed the Morrison-Moakley bill on grounds that it would encourage refugees from politically torn countries to flock into the United States illegally in hopes of some day being accepted as political refugees. Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) said it would open the door to “literally billions of people.”

But supporters of the proposal countered that it only applies to aliens already living in the country.