by Ollie Ruth Jefferson, Attorney at Law

This article was first printed in the Arlington Star-Telegram Tuesday, 8/6/96, Section B, Page 10

Copyright (C) August 6, 1996, Star-Telegram. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the Star-Telegram. Any unauthorized reproduction of this article is strictly prohibited. For reprint information, contact the Star-Telegram at 817-390-7574.

Exactly one year after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Congress approved and President Clinton signed into law a bill designed to combat domestic and international terrorism.

But contained in this legislation are disturbing immigration provisions that strike a deep blow against judicial due process and have nothing to do with fighting terrorism. One such provision addresses the removal of foreign-born individuals who enter the United States illegally.

When the new provision is implemented - possibly as early as this month - these individuals will become ineligible for some forms of relief from deportation, including suspension of deportation, a little-known yet important discretionary relief.

More than 3,000 people were accorded lawful permanent resident status through grants of suspension by the end of fiscal 1995. In order to be considered for suspension, a person in deportation proceedings must prove at least seven years of residence in the United States, good moral character, and extreme hardship if returned to the native country.

But the new law would eliminate the possibility of undocumented entrants' applying for this relief. The judicial proceedings against them would involve "exclusion" as opposed to deportation. The distinction is crucial because suspension relief can only be granted in deportation proceedings.

I did not have to look too deeply into my own caseload to see the impact of such a law. The family that came immediately to mind has lived in Arlington and now resides in Fort Worth. I will not name them for confidential reasons.

This couple and their children entered the United States from Mexico illegally more than 25 years ago. The father has been a farm worker, following crops as far away as Florida. He has worked mowing lawns and as a day laborer, working more than one job at a time at minimum wage. The mother does volunteer work at a community center, where she and other women make quilts for the needy.

The family missed its best opportunity during the 1986 amnesty. The government filing fee for the entire family was nearly $1,000. The father doubled his efforts and over the period of a year earned the necessary filing fee. But on the last day of the amnesty application period, his truck broke, and he did not make it to the center until after midnight. It had closed, and the application period had officially ended.

The family later suffered its greatest loss when an adult son was killed in a hate crime. The family has since begun to visit his grave together each week for prayer and remembrance. They have become especially close to the son's two children, saying that they are all they have left of him.

Somehow, after this family had spent more than a quarter-century in the United States, the Immigration and Naturalization Service found them out and placed them in deportation proceedings. They applied for suspension of deportation on hardship and humanitarian grounds. After a very difficult and protracted struggle, they were granted a green card.

This family will not be deported, but upon implementation of the exclusion provision of the new anti-terrorism law, individuals such as these will not even be allowed to apply for relief from deportation. Last year, about 80 percent of the 110,000 cases heard by immigration judges throughout the United States involved people who entered the country illegally. That is an enormous number of people who will be without the possibility of applying for relief.

Upon signing the anti-terrorism bill, Clinton acknowledged that the immigration provisions were very restrictive and had nothing to do with fighting terrorism. He requested that Congress remedy the impact of this law through immigration legislation now pending in conference committee. It is not too late to register concern about the impact of this legislation.

You may ask why those who have entered this country illegally should be able to avoid deportation. A quick answer is that the hardship that deportation would place on the children in this family - children who are legal citizens by right of birth - is unconscionable.

My second answer is that this family - like many in America - has put together a life in this country for the past 25 years, supporting themselves without welfare, burying their dead, and volunteering in their community. This should not be ignored.

In a nation of immigrants, there should still be room in our laws for humanitarian relief.