Push to Ease Immigration Rules Is Finished for Now

Congress and the White House have abandoned a bipartisan effort to loosen immigration law this year, prompting Democrats to seize on the issue in a bid to lure Latino voters in the upcoming midterm elections.

The quiet death of the immigration legislation comes even though President Bush had urged passage of a bill to make it easier for certain illegal immigrants to apply for legal residency.

Over the last year and a half, versions of the legislation have passed twice in the House and once in the Senate.

The legislation was attacked by opponents as an amnesty in disguise and supported by proponents as a modest measure to help keep hard-working immigrant families together in the United States. While broader reforms were broached last year by the Bush administration, this legislation was the only significant measure easing immigration rules to reach a floor vote in this Congress.

But advocates and foes alike say the push to grant protections to a narrowly defined group of illegal immigrants stalled after the Sept. 11 attacks caused the government to rethink the connections between immigration policy and national security.

“Had it not been for Sept. 11,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that favors restrictions, the legislation “probably would have gone through.” Now, he said, the proposal “is pretty much dead for the remainder of this session of Congress.”

Bush twice tried to breathe life into the legislation that would extend a now-lapsed provision of immigration law known as 245(i). The extension would have allowed some undocumented immigrants who appear eligible for permanent residency to apply for legalization from within the United States.

Under current law, such immigrants are required to return to their native countries to make the application, where they can be forced to wait years for permission to emigrate. In practice, this requirement is a powerful deterrent for applicants, because few want to risk being shut out of the country for as long as a decade.

In early 2001, after the 245(i) program was resurrected for a few months under legislation enacted at the end of the Clinton administration, Bush sought to extend it as a matter of fairness to some would-be immigrants who had missed the deadline.

At the time, the announcement helped Bush demonstrate a degree of distance from a wing of the Republican Party that is, in general, more skeptical of immigration and seeks, in particular, more stringent rules against illegal immigration. As a former governor of the border state of Texas, Bush has long experience with immigration issues.

The GOP-led House responded to the president by passing a narrowly drafted extension, 336 to 43, in May 2001. The Democratic-controlled Senate, by unanimous consent, passed a somewhat broader version on Sept. 6. And then the matter was dropped after the Sept. 11 attacks.

In March of this year, Bush pushed the idea again as part of a diplomatic initiative before he made a visit to Mexico. The House, by a vote of 275 to 137, again passed a narrowly crafted measure. But Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and others then objected on national security grounds to relaxing immigration rules. Many Democrats, on the other hand, said the 245(i) program should be made permanent law.

Efforts to bridge the differences between the House and Senate died, and the White House made no protest.

It was never clear how many illegal immigrants would have been aided by the proposals. Estimates ran from a few thousand to tens of thousands or more.

Some immigration advocacy groups complained that the legislation was so tightly drawn -- with such a small window of time for potential applicants -- that its effect would have been small. Others worried that a limited immigration measure would be misinterpreted in the immigrant community as a general amnesty.

Kelley said many advocacy groups have now turned their attention to enacting broader reforms--in the next Congress.

With an eye on the political makeup of that next Congress, Democrats are now pushing a larger package of immigration reforms as part of a platform plainly meant to win the allegiance of Latino voters.

The package’s centerpiece would grant amnesty to illegal immigrants who have been in the country for at least five years, have worked for two years and can pass a background check.

The initiative is going nowhere as this Congress nears adjournment.

Another immigration proposal that advocates hope to enact this year would help certain undocumented high school students apply for college and gain legal status in the United States. The bill, which would ease a restriction imposed in a 1996 immigration law, is backed by Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee. It also has bipartisan House support.

Nevertheless, its chances in the waning days of the 107th Congress remain uncertain.