On January 7, President Bush gave an important and highly publicized speech, in which he strongly endorsed a program to make it easier for illegal aliens in this country to achieve legal status though what has been described as an "earned legalization" program. What President Bush has in mind is a temporary worker program, which would benefit aliens already working in this country as well as aliens outside the U.S. desiring to work in occupations where there is a demonstrated need. He insisted that this would not be an "amnesty" program. We expect that the administration will send a proposed bill to Congress and then the House and Senate will either introduce separate bills or substantial amendments to whatever the White House sends to Capitol Hill. It is impossible to predict if we will have a new Immigration Law by the end of the year, or how the final version may read. Given that immigration is such a controversial subject we would be surprised if a new law is passed anytime soon. However, we will carefully monitor the progress of the deliberations and the potential possibilities to assist our clients, many of whom are stuck in the current gridlock that effectively forecloses resort to the legal immigration. Many of the tough enforcement laws which were legislated in 1996, particularly the 3 and 10 year bars that apply to many aliens in this country who have accrued unlawful presence, our clients cannot possibly leave the United States to apply for visas at U.S. Consulates abroad.

On January 21, 2004, Senators Hagel (R-NE) and Dashle (D-SD) introduced "The Immigration Reform Act of 2004: Strengthening America's National Security, Economy and Families." A preliminary analysis suggests that the bill would end the 3 and 10 year unlawful presence bars and provide for what is referred to as a "rolling registry", allowing persons present in the U.S. as of a certain date to apply for permanent residence without a family or occupational petition. The bill would also increase the permanent residence quotas. In his press release, Senator declared, "It is not in our security interest to have 8-10 million people undocumented and unaccounted for in our country. Congress must reform the patchwork of immigration laws that have created an underground black market labor force."

George Bush has emphasized that aliens will have to continue to qualify for their immigrant status under existing channels, so hopefully the existing legal barriers will be lifted and this will not have to be called "amnesty."