Immigration policy, once a target for liberalization, is cast in a new light

WASHINGTON — The recent terrorist attacks have radically altered the immigration debate, replacing an agenda of amnesty with proposals to remilitarize U.S. borders, severely limit student visas and increase tracking of foreigners on American soil.

The economic downturn and declining demand for foreign labor also have altered the politics of immigration.

But most of all, according to those involved with the issue, the basic image of immigrants has changed, with the image of those who hate the United States and are willing to wreak destruction on its citizens displacing, at least temporarily, the picture of hard-working men and women in pursuit of the American dream.

On Sept. 25, two weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the U.S. House passed an amendment to a defense-authorization bill calling for the use of military personnel to help patrol the borders with Mexico and Canada.

"How do you defend your home if your front and back doors are unlocked?" Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, the sponsor, asked his colleagues. "If 300,000 illegal immigrants can gain access to America every year, trying to find a better life, do not doubt for one moment that a larger contingent of people with evil intentions could gain entry into America and continue to kill American citizens."

Before Sept. 11, a powerful alliance of Hispanic groups, organized labor, business, Republican campaign strategists, liberals and religious lobbies had joined forces with the Bush administration in a bid to enact a major liberalization of immigration policy.

Republicans aligned with Bush had become convinced that the GOP's past anti-immigration stands were killing the party's chances to win Hispanic votes.

Businesses, in turn, were desperate to fill low-end jobs in the hotel, restaurant and construction industries, and other difficult positions. Organized labor formally abandoned its opposition to immigration, which had been based on the view that the new arrivals threatened U.S. workers, instead viewing the surge of legal and illegal workers as a key source of new members to build unions.

The moment appeared ripe for legislation granting illegal workers some form of amnesty, perhaps including green cards that could lead to citizenship.

"We were moving slowly but surely to do these things," said Daniella Henry, head of the Haitian American Community Council in Delray Beach, Fla., "and all of a sudden everything was crushed, just like the World Trade Center."

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., one of the strongest proponents of amnesty and liberalized immigration policy, said he and allies may be able to revive proposals to grant legal status to illegal immigrants by using a security argument.

"An orderly program of earned adjustment, based on work history and continuity of work, that involves stages of getting full status, lets us know who is here," Berman said. "When they go through a process of adjudication, they come out of the shadows."

Although there appears to be broad support for tightening borders and preventing terrorists from moving freely within the United States, both programs still face some political obstacles.

"Each proposal needs to be measured against the standard of: Does it really do anything to make us safer and at what cost?" said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The suspects in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a number of whom used lax immigration regulations and easy access to student and other visas to enter the country, have changed the focus of the immigration debate in a number of other ways.

Before Sept. 11, the focus was largely on the legal and illegal entry of Hispanics, many with little education, through the U.S.-Mexican border.

Since the attacks, the focus has shifted much more to immigration from Asian, Middle Eastern and other Muslim countries. Many of those immigrants have good educations and are seeking degrees and advanced training through college and graduate-school visa programs.

At a Senate hearing yesterday, INS Commissioner James Ziglar cautioned against lumping all immigrants into a single category as a result of the attacks.

"Immigrants are not terrorists," Ziglar said, adding that the hijackers were not immigrants but rather people who entered the country to cause harm.

Information from Newsday is included in this report.