Speech #1040203578

I would not be able to offer itbut which is included in the Housepassed bill and therefore will be a subject of the conference committee. and. therefore. I hope our Senate colleagues will be able to study and. hopefully. concur in it. This is an amendment to restrict section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. By way of explanation. prior to 1994. if an illegal alien residing in the United States became eligible for an immigrant visa through a family relationship or other means. then the alien could adjust to lawful. permanent resident status without any financial or other penalty. In order to obtain the visa. the alien was required to depart from the United States. obtain a visa at the foreign consulate. and then. of course. return and acquire the legal status here. Section 245(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act was added by section 505 of the fiscal year 1995 State appropriations measure. Under this new section. an illegal alien who becomes eligible for an immigrant visa may adjust to lawful permanent status without departing the United States. but only if the individual pays a penalty of five times the normal application fee. The penalty fee is approximately $750. Some have referred to this as. "buying your way in." Those who are wealthy enough simply pay this fee. this five times the normal penalty fee. and thereby are able to convert an Illegal status to legal status and never have to return home to obtain a visa to arrive here legally. Under the proposed amendment. which I will not be able to offer but. as I said. which is included in the Housepassed version of the bill and which I hope our Senate conferees will look kindly upon. under this amendment. the aliens present in the United States illegally will no longer be able to stay here and buy their way into permanent resident status. They would have to return to their home country. obtain a legal visa. and return just as they did prior to 1995. The amendment would take effect on October 1. 1996. There are a couple of exceptions that are worth noting. because we do not want to penalize anyone who is already here and who would be acting under appropriate color of law. First. all aliens currently eligible for lawful permanent resident status under section 245(1) of tl e act may. under our proposal. upon payment of the full penalty fee. apply for legal status until October 1. 1996. After October 1. 1996. those aliens. and only those aliens in the socalled "family fairness" category. would be eligible to change their status under section 245(i). The people protected under that section are those under section 301 of the Immigration Act of 1990. They are exempt from this change. Those in the family fairness category would be able to stay in the United States and would not be faced with this penalty fee. It includes those children and spouses of aliens granted asylum on May 5. 1988. In order to be eligible. the spouse or the child must have been present in the United States on that date. Those are the people who. in some way. were grandfathered in. and. as a result. they would not be required to go back and obtain a visa in order to obtain legal status here. But. except for those two categories. people would no longer be able to buy their way into the United States. The amendment takes effect at the end of the fiscal year. in order to give INS and the State Department an opportunity to adjust their resources. After September 30. 1997. this whole section 245(i) would expire. Just a word. The Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Department of State oppose the amendment. primarily on fiscal grounds because of their costs inherent in processing the visa applications. We are in the process of working out the possibility where a fee would be paid which would cover their expenses and alleviate that particular concern. They also pose the argument that. regardless where an illegal alien applies for legal status. either in the United States or a consulate in their home country. the waiting period to achieve the visa is the same. The point I make. however. is that the illegal alien is already in the United States illegally and that is not something we should reward. at least for those who are able to pay for it. by simply having them pay a special fine. I also think what the agencies fall to appreciate is that once an illegal alien applies for legal status in the United States. he may be considered to be permanently residing in the United States under color of law. the socalled PRUCOL status. The PRUCOL standard is frequently used as a transitional status for aliens who are becoming permanent residents of the United States. If an alien is considered under PRUCOL. then that alien is eligible for numerous Federal assistance programs. including AFDC.