Senate OKs Plan for Undocumented

In a gesture of goodwill during the U.S. visit of Mexican President Vicente Fox, the Senate voted unanimously late Thursday to renew a program that allows certain undocumented immigrants to apply for legal status without having to return to their home countries.

The measure, supported by President Bush and expected to clear the House as soon as next week, would reinstate a program largely designed to prevent immigrant families from having to endure long separations as members wade through the U.S. immigration application process.

“This is going to help hundreds of thousands of people who have been in limbo,” said Douglas Hattaway, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

The program is one of the least controversial elements of the broader immigration talks underway between Fox and Bush. The policy was started in the mid-1990s under President Clinton but expired in April. The Senate’s action would reinstate the program through next April.

Previous efforts to extend the program had faltered. But Daschle pressed for the measure’s passage this week amid the pomp of Fox’s visit to Washington, which included an address Thursday to a joint session of Congress.

Republican foes of relaxing immigration laws, principally Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, had threatened to block the measure earlier this week. But Senate sources said the White House leaned on these Republicans to withhold their objections, avoiding a potentially embarrassing scene during Fox’s visit.

The so-called 245(i) program is available only to immigrants who are eligible for legal residency under existing law. Immigration experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of such immigrants never apply because they do not want to give up jobs or endure long separations from their U.S. families.

The experts say that about 75% of those who participate are spouses or children of U.S. citizens or legal residents.

Supporters of the program note that it generates revenue for the Immigration and Naturalization Service because applicants are required to pay a $1,000 fee.