Laws: July, 2003 - Number #3

The House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims is being chaired by John Hostettler (R-Indiana); the Senate Immigration Subcommittee by Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia).

Representative Thomas G. Tancredo (R-CO) has denounced the growing use and acceptance in the US of matricula consular cards issued by Mexican consulates: over one million have been issued. The House Immigration Subcommittee held a hearing in June 2003 that featured testimony denouncing the cards; witnesses testified that 402 localities, 32 counties, 122 financial institutions and 908 law-enforcement offices accept the cards as identification.

The US Treasury on April 30, 2003 issued regulations that allow US banks to accept the cards as valid identification for opening a bank account, prompting Tancredo to introduce legislation that would prohibit US banks from accepting matricula consular cards. The FBI testified before Congress in June 2003 that matriculas were "not a reliable form of identification." However, matriculas are accepted by the Transportation Security Administration for air travel, but not for admission to federal buildings.

State and local governments have varying opinions on matricula consular cards. In May 2003, Colorado Governor Bill Owens signed a law that bars Colorado state and local government offices from recognizing the matricula identification cards now issued by Mexican consulates.

Legalization. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride is expected to bring bus loads of supporters of legalization for unauthorized workers to Washington, DC and New York City in September 2003.

In 1987-88, the US legalized 2.7 million foreigners under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. There were numerous suits over the INS regulations implementing the two legalization programs, one for unauthorized foreigners in the US continuously since January 1, 1982 and the other for unauthorized farm workers who did at least 90 days of farm work in 1985-86.

Congress dealt with the INS's restrictive definition of "continuously" in the Legal Immigrant and Family Equity Act of 2000. LIFE allowed an estimated 200,000 foreigners who applied for legalization and were rejected, or who did not apply because they thought they were ineligible, to apply for late legalization until June 4, 2003- as of Fall 2002, about 55,000 applied. LIFE also restored the 245(i) program between January and April 2001, so that foreigners illegally in the US awaiting immigration visas could pay a $1,000 fine and adjust their status without leaving the US.

According to opinion polls, Americans think that legal immigration should be reduced, and more should be done to prevent illegal immigration. However, when individuals and families are identified who are unauthorized, there is often a groundswell of local support for them. A Mexican man entered the US in 1986 illegally and, when he wanted to legalize his status, hired an attorney who filed an admittedly false asylum application on his behalf. His asylum application was rejected, and he was ordered to leave the US within 120 days. As he was preparing to leave for Mexico with his family, Senator Diane Feinsten (D-CA) intervened, winning a 60-day delay and promising to introduce a private bill to grant immigrant status to the man and his family.

Many of the calls for a new guest worker program are coming from border states. Representatives Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) have announced plans for a guest worker program that would allow participants to earn immigrant status.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in May 2003 called for legalization and a new guest worker program: "We proved in the drug war that as long as there's a demand for drugs, drugs are going to come across" the border. "There are jobs that American workers simply won't do. As long as there's a demand for workers, workers are going to come across." Senator Bob Graham (D-FL), campaigning in Arizona in June 2003, called for stricter enforcement of existing immigration laws but also advocated a guest worker program for farm workers that would allow currently unauthorized workers to earn an immigrant status.

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) became one of the first candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination to say that the US must recognize the difference between immigration and national security, and that the US must change its border control policies. Lieberman said it is time to resume migration discussions with Mexico: "If I were president today, I would immediately invite President Vicente Fox to the White House to sit and talk." Lieberman said he wants a guest-worker program accompanied by "a legalization program" for some unauthorized foreigners.

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) announced a guest worker plan in June 2003 that would allow unauthorized foreigners in the US to remain nine or 12 months, up to a total of 36 months, and use the Social Security and Medicare taxes paid by the guest workers to provide them with health care. Cornyn said that the "fruit of our current immigration policy is death, danger, and denial."

Naturalization. Congress approved legislation in June 2003 that would reduce from three years to one year the time that active-duty members of the US armed forces must wait before applying for citizenship during peacetime. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill would also waive naturalization fees for applicants who are in the military and grant eligibility for immigration benefits to close relatives of citizens or US permanent residents killed in the line of duty in the armed service.

In July 2002, President Bush signed an executive order that allowed immigrants on active duty as of September 11, 2001 to apply for US citizenship immediately. About 15,000 immigrants became eligible for citizenship and, as of February 2003, 5,441 applied for naturalization.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, 12 non-US citizens died; eight were awarded US citizenship posthumously. In June 2003, there were 37,000 noncitizens among the 1.4-million service members on active duty.

On July 4, there are many naturalization ceremonies in which immigrants become US citizens. Vartan Gregorian, an Iranian immigrant who was president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, said on July 4, 2001 at a naturalization ceremony for 71 new citizens at Thomas Jefferson's Charlottesville, Virginia estate that, "We have all chosen the United States for its rights, institutions and opportunities. . . . We come not only to enjoy its benefits, but we come to improve it. .. . We know America is not perfect, but it is perfectible."

George Bush, speaking at a naturalization ceremony on Ellis Island on July 10, 2001, said "Immigration is not a problem to be solved. It is a sign of a confident and successful nation."

The Hmong Veterans Naturalization Act of 2000 gave up to 45,000 Hmong veterans and their wives and widows the chance to take the US citizenship test in their own language rather than in English. One month before the program expired in June 2003, only 5,331 Hmong had naturalized under the relaxed requirements of the law.

Budget. The federal government reimburses state and local governments for about a third of the costs they incur to imprison criminal aliens under the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. The budget was reduced from $500 million a year to $250 million in FY03, and President Bush has recommended eliminating the program.

The US government got a $390 billion budget for FY03 in February 2003. The federal government operated for four months at FY02 levels, and the FY03 budget largely maintained FY02 funding levels.