Half-open door:

...The Senate bill also calls for a yearly immigration ceiling of 425,000, excluding refugees for a 270,000 cap based on a six-category preference system which gives priority to family members and those with needed skills...

...Save for the commission's opposition to a large-scale temporary alien worker program, many of the commission's proposals were incorporated in substantial form into the Simpson-Mazzoli package - after compromises with the Reagan administration, which had developed its own response to the commission's work...

...With the Senate passage the House has ostensibly a year and a half to enact an immigration reform measure, but the prevailing wisdom is that if it isn't passed by the August recess its future will be quite dim since it is not a measure likely to win friends for members in an election year - particularly when the issue pits major segments of the Democratic constituency against each other: labor, seeking protection of American jobs...

...Penalties for employers who knowingly hire aliens had been a major component of recommendations on immigration policy after extensive review by both the Ford and Carter administrations Legislation establishing employer penalties had passed the House twice between 1971 and 1974, and was proposed by the Carter administration in 1977 but not enacted...

...The Senate would phase in the new temporary-worker program over three years...

...but spouses, parents, and children of U S citizens are exempt from the limits...

...The prospect of finding work is generally agreed to be by far the largest factor in drawing thousands illegally across the U. S. borders and is the focal point of what has been described as the most comprehensive change in American immigration policy since 1952...

...At a Republican fund-raising dinner on June 20, President Reagan warned that a possible Communist takeover of Central America could result in "a tidal wave of refugees - and this time they'll be 'feet people' and not 'boat people' - swarming into our country seeking a safe haven from Communist repression to our south...

...The Senate proposal would also set aside 350,000 admissions for family reunification categories and 70,000 for independent categories...

...The Senate and House measures both provide for a series of graduated penalties consisting of civil fines...

...Of course, the distinction between economic and political refugees becomes blurred for an administration that has authorized the Coast Guard to halt Haitian boat people in open seas and compel their return...

...The Hispanic community has been adamant in opposing employer sanctions, fearing that employers anxious to avoid penalties will not hire those who "look foreign," thus exacerbating existing discrimination against Hispanics...

...In an effort to meet those concerns, the Senate provided that all employers examine specified documentation from all newly hired, with penalties for failure to do so...

...This situation would be remedied by the proposed immigration reform bill - called the Simpson-Mazzoli bill after its chief sponsors in the Senate and House, Sen Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo ) and Rep Romano L Maz-zoli (D-Ky ) Under Simpson's leadership, S. 529 passed the Senate on May 18, in much the same form it had been passed last Congress - only to die in the final throes of the House's lame duck session, buried by over three hundred amendments...

...In fact, the Immigration Service has been catching between 900,000 to over a million each year for the past six years Those that get away are added to the already burgeoning illegal alien population in the United States - estimated by the Census Bureau as being between 3 5 and 6 million with other estimates higher...

...in the case of the Senate, of $1,000 and $2,000 for each alien for first and subsequent offenses, with criminal penalties provided for a pattern or practice of violation...

...and, in the House committee version, a penalty structure more graduated with an administrative citation by the Attorney General for the first violation (which need not be knowing), civil fines similar to the Senate's for subsequent violations, and criminal penalties on the third "knowing" violation...

...Many in the Hispanic community find the temporary-worker program offensive - saying to Mexicans, in effect, that the U. S. will find them useful as workers but not as citizens...

...But the debate is not over, and fear and bigotry are waiting for their chance JEREMIAH BARUCH (Jeremiah Baruch is the pseudonym of a Washington writer with a position in government )ition in government...

...The House Judiciary bill authorizes permanent resident status for aliens who can prove they were in the country before January 1, 1982...

...The House measure, H. R. 1510, reported out of the Judiciary Committee on May 16 (and referred to four other House committees which were to report by June 27), makes the verification and record-keeping optional until the Immigration Service finds an illegal alien on an employer's payroll...

...Accumulated frustration over the illegal immigration issue led to Congress's creation in 1978 of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, chaired by Rev Theodore Hesburgh...

...hence, no cap on legal immigration has been provided...

...the House Judiciary Committee calls upon the president to report to the Congress on the need for such changes...

...But as they say in the trade, these numbers are "soft" data They represent educated guesses at the number of Haitians, Dominicans, Guatemalans, Peruvians, Filipinos, Koreans, Indians, and Nigerians, among others, that illegally enter the country Mexico is generally thought to account for fifty to sixty percent of the total - a country whose population between the end of World War II and 1980 has leaped from twenty-two million to seventy-two million - with today about one out of every two Mexicans being under sixteen years of age...

...God, he needed it Suddenly, the screeching wheels sounded like a man screaming as the freight cars slammed into one another like gun shots - one after the other...

...Those opposed to amnesty, even in a piecemeal fashion, argue that it condones and encourages the breaking of the law and gives away costly taxpayer benefits...

...But it appears to be the only humane option, unless the U. S. is willing to have massive roundups far exceeding in scale the deplorable exodus of four hundred thousand alien workers from Nigeria...

...Given this pressure, it is understandable that the U.S.Border Patrol is apprehending forty to fifty percent more illegal aliens so far this year as compared to last...

...It has become routine to find unlucky Mexicans chewed up by freight trains as they try to cross the border illegally and travel inland to jobs - some just lose a hand or leg...

...In response to the pleas of the agricultural industry, which has come to be heavily dependent on illegal migrant workers, both the House committee and Senate measures revise and expand the existing program allowing foreign workers into the country temporarily...

...Much of the present legislation being debated reveals a marked generosity for which all Americans can take pride...

...Both the House and Senate bills would rely upon existing forms of worker identification for three years...

...The House Judiciary bill limits such assistance for five years to emergency medical care, except for the aged, blind, and disabled...

...today it takes over three times as many...

...He paused to catch his breath...

...In those circumstances an unemployment rate of ten to eleven percent doesn't look so bad - particularly given that the U .S...

...When the Simpson-Mazzoli bill was introduced last year, it took 45 pesos to buy a dollar...

...At that time, the Senate proposes that the president implement such changes as may be necessary to establish a secure system of determining employment eligibility...

...Amnesty for aliens presently residing illegally in the country is also a contentious issue...

...The Border Patrol estimates that they only apprehend one out of three attempting to enter the country illegally - and yet over 2,000 illegal aliens are apprehended and returned every day...

...Hispanics, fearing possible discrimination...

...Although it is a felony to assist aliens to enter illegally or to harbor or transport illegal aliens, the statute books so far have expressly excluded sanctions against employing illegal aliens even if the employer knows of the employee's status...

...Many more are simply caught and bussed back into Mexico for another try - maybe the same day...

...By crossing anywhere along the 1,954 miles of border, Mexicans can seek an escape from fifty percent unemployment and one hundred percent inflation...

...Washington report HALF-OPEN DOOR THE PUZZLE OF IMMIGRATION The train had slowed down enough-no one else was in sight as he started running alongside His pace was just right as he grabbed onto the coupling and was pulling himself up...

...The Senate-passed bill requires employers of at least four workers to check documents, such as driver's licenses or social security cards, and to keep records of those they hire...

...minimum wage is about four times that of the average on the other side of the border...

...The Border Patrol found his mangled body in El Paso's Alfafa railyards later on that morning...

...The immigration policy debate is forcing Congress to face the economic and social realities of the great differences in prosperity between the United States and most of the rest of the world, particularly its neighbors to the south...

...The ACLU, among other civil liberties groups, has raised grave concerns about the specter of a national identification card - not so much about its present use, but how it might be subject to government abuse in the future...

...The commission's recommendations, issued on March 1, 1981, included making it illegal to hire undocumented aliens, granting amnesty for certain aliens illegally residing in the U. S. at the present time - legalizing their status - and establishing a permanent increase in an annual worldwide ceiling on legal immigration into the country...

...The House Judiciary has taken the position, advanced by Chairman Rodino, that it is premature to change the preference system before the results of legalization are known...

...The Senate bill includes a two-tier legalization provision, providing for immediate permanent resident status to those who can prove they were in the country before January 1, 1977, and for temporary resident status for those proving they were in the country prior to January 1, 1980 (who can then apply for permanent resident status after three years...

...Moreover, legalization would recognize the contribution that many undocumented aliens make to the economy as well as eliminate some of the conditions that lead to exploitation and blackmail of a huge underclass within our borders...

...and the black community, having concern for both issues...

...He was pulling himself up - to a job inland Work...

...The Senate would bar legalized temporary resident aliens from federal assistance programs and keep such benefits from permanent resident aliens for three years...