Ending the Long Lines

Thousands of immigrants across the nation in recent days waited in long lines for many hours at offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. They had no other choice if they wanted to meet a key deadline to submit their applications for legal residency in this country. As is often the case, Los Angeles--the modern-day Ellis Island--had some of the longest lines.

Among the people waiting many hours in “The Line,” as immigrants commonly refer to it, were those eligible for residency because of family ties--the children, spouses, siblings and parents of legal residents and citizens. Many others have an employer willing to sponsor them. All of them were covered by the Legal Immigration Family Equity Act that took effect last December and would allow as many as 640,000 illegal immigrants to apply to legalize their status without returning to their home countries and applying from there, as U.S. immigration law previously required.

It is not known yet how many were able to take advantage of the new law, but it is clear that thousands could not, through no fault of their own. Even INS officials, to their credit, admit that many legitimate applicants were turned away simply because the INS lacks the staff to efficiently handle large numbers of petitioners for residency and citizenship. “We have the worst possible conditions for our employees and the customers that we could possibly have,” said Thomas J. Schiltgen, the 26-year agency veteran who heads the seven-county Los Angeles district of the INS.

This week, those unlucky immigrants had a powerful person supporting their goal to become legal residents. On Tuesday, President Bush sent a letter to key congressional leaders urging them to extend the deadline.

The response from House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) has been positive. Some key Republicans have also indicated their support of an extension. One of them, Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), agreed to co-sponsor a bill to extend the deadline.

Even Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), a hard-liner on immigration, acknowledges that “because the INS failed to publish regulations in a timely manner, fairness requires that eligible applicants receive their entitled four months, but extending the deadline any further only serves as an open invitation to illegal immigration.” The latter part of this statement is far from certain. What is certain is that several thousand people who are already in the country and eligible for the law’s benefits were not able to apply for them.

In his letter to Congress, President Bush estimated that 200,000 people were not able to apply for legalization within the deadline. And while there are many reasons, no one disputes that a key factor is the inability of INS’ overworked bureaucracy to deal efficiently with a dramatic upsurge in immigration that began in the 1970s.

If only the INS had placed as much emphasis on the service side of its mission as it has on its law enforcement duties, this problem might have been avoided. Yet that is hindsight.

For now, the president’s generous request could solve some of the problems. It deserves a prompt and positive response on Capitol Hill.