Affordable Child Care

Although I agree with the thrust of Helene Pepe’s “Making Nannies ‘Legal’ Can Be Done With Ease” (Commentary, Feb. 17), the article requires clarification from an immigration law standpoint.

Although the headline states “Expand the ‘unskilled labor’ visa to include home care . . .,” in fact housekeepers are already considered unskilled laborers. This is precisely the problem; they, and their families, are restricted to 10,000 visas reserved annually for unskilled labor. This number is down from 27,000 under the pre-1990 law, not 40,000 as the article states.

In reality, due to this 10,000 visa cap, a more realistic estimate of the backlog from the beginning to green card is 15-20 years, rather than the various confusing “processing times” referred to in the article.

Finally, the suggestion that home care workers be given employment authorization once the U.S. Labor Department certifies that there are no American workers available to do the job is a good one. However, a concomitant revision would be required to protect both employer and illegal nanny prior to such certification. Currently, if an employer files papers with the Department of Labor for an illegal nanny, the Immigration Service will fine the employer and place the nanny under deportation proceedings. As long as this practice continues, no employer will risk filing papers to legalize a nanny, even if the backlog were eliminated.

CARL SHUSTERMAN Los Angeles