After a year and a half of reporting dismal news for pro-immigration advocates, we are pleased to report some positive developments on the legislative front. First, as we reported last year, Senator Alan Simpson, considered no friend of immigrants, retired from the Senate and will no longer chair the Senate Immigration Subcommittee. He has been replaced by Senator Spencer Abraham, a Republican from Michigan, who is a strong supporter of legal immigration and who lead the opposition to drastic cuts in legal immigration in the last Congress. Senator Abraham has already stated his intention to take a "more balanced" approach to the discussion of immigration reform than in the past. Senator Abraham has, however, indicated an interest in enhancing crime-related deportation provisions. Senator Abraham will focus this session on passing a corrections bill focusing on changing the recently passed immigration law.

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts returns as the ranking minority member of the subcommittee. Other members of the committee are Senator Grassley (R-IA), Kyl (R-AZ), Specter (R-PA), Feinstein (D-CA) and Dick Durban (D-IL).

On the House of Representatives side, there will be seven Republicans and five Democrats. Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas, returns for another term as chairman on the Immigration Subcommittee. The ranking minority member of the committee will be Representative Melvin Watt, Democrat of North Carolina who is actually new to the committee. Watt is considered to be much more pro-immigration than previous minority ranking member John Bryant (D-TX). Other members of the subcommittee are Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Sonny Bono (R-CA), Ed Bryant (R-TN) who are all returning members. Three new Republicans have been added: Bill Jenkins (R-TN), Ed Pease (R-IN) and Chris Cannon (R-UT). Returning Democrats include Howard Berman (D-CA) and Charles Schumer (D-NY). New Democrats include Zoe Lofgren of California, a former immigration lawyer and member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association who is expected to be a strong advocate for immigration rights and Robert Wexler (D-FL).

The following is a summary of some of the more important bills introduced in the House of Representatives:

- H.R. 7 - introduced by Brian Bilbray (R-CA) would deny citizenship at birth to children born in the US to persons who are not citizens or permanent residents;

- H.R. 119 - introduced by Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to impose additional conditions on employers of H-1B non-immigrants;

- H.R. 203 - introduced by Jay Kim (R-CA) would add the Republic of Korea to the list of visa waiver pilot countries;

- H.R. 225 - introduced by Bill McCollum (R-FL) would permit certain aliens over 55 to obtain a four-year nonimmigrant visitor's visa;

- H.R. 347 - introduced by Rep. Stump (R-AZ) would impose a moratorium on immigration by aliens other than refugees, priority workers and the spouses and children of citizens of the US;

The American Immigration Lawyers Association has set as its principal priority in the session of Congress to reverse and/or ameliorate the most damaging effects of last year's passage of the new immigration law. To further this, AILA has prepared a letter to Congress urging Members to support a technical corrections bill. Our law firm will be sending the letter and invite any of our readers to let us know if they wish to be added as signatories to the letter. Just e-mail us your name and address to gsiskind@visalaw.com.
The text of the letter is as follows:

"Dear Member of Congress:

We are writing to you to urge you to support efforts in the 105th Congress to correct some problems with the recently enacted "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996" (IIRAIRA) and to support our system of legal immigration.

The IRRARIA attempted to deal with legitimate concerns about increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of immigration enforcement efforts. However, this legislation exceeded that mandate and included many provisions which harm lawful immigrants and remove discretionary humanitarian relief options for those with strong family ties in the US. We urge you to support a technical corrections bill or other legislation to ameliorate the hardship that the new law will bring to your constituents:

1. Protect family unity and economic competitiveness: The new law contains unnecessarily harsh and punitive three year, ten year and permanent bars to admissibility to the US. These bars will prevent persons who are otherwise eligible for lawful status from becoming lawful and reuniting with close family members or serving the needs of US employers. We urge you to support a more generous waiver of the bars to protect deserving constituents from having to depart the US for years.

2. Preserve humanitarian relief: The new law drastically restricts relief from deportation for long-term lawful permanent residents and others who have extensive family and community ties in the US. We urge you to restore the ability of the courts to hold the executive branch accountable and to correct mistakes of fact, law and abuse of discretion.

3. Retain agency accountability and review: The new law bars the federal courts from reviewing most kinds of immigration cases. These bars insulate a government agency, the INS, from oversight and review. We urge you to restore the ability of the courts to hold the executive branch accountable and to correct mistakes of fact, law and abuse of discretion.

Finally, we firmly believe that our current legal immigration system serves the US national interest. Our legal immigration system is a highly regulated and rational system designed to serve the needs of US families and employers, and to protect a very limited number of refugees fleeing persecution.

We strongly urge you to reject any efforts during the 105th Congress to dramatically cut legal immigration. Proposals to slash legal immigration by eliminating family and employment-based immigration categories were resoundingly rejected during the 104th Congress. Responsible reform should be guided by the principle that legal immigration strengthens America. Responsible reform will promote and protect the interests of US families in being united, will enhance the global competitiveness of US employers and will uphold our proud tradition of providing safe haven to those in need of protection.

You will be provided with specific legislative language within the coming weeks. Please let us know what concrete steps you are taking to address our concerns.

Sincerely,"

We will, of course, report on the responses we receive.