Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, has charged that the bill "undermines a fundamental principle of immigration policy that the people we allow to come here make a commitment to the rest of us that they will stay out of trouble."
Judy Golub, a lobbyist for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the legislation "does have a shot" at passage, even in the post-Sept. 11 atmosphere.
"There's a lot of concern right now about how the 1996 laws unfairly impact people and violate due process," she said.

At the same time, a coalition of pro-immigrant groups Wednesday began a nationwide effort aimed at building support for an even more ambitious goal, winning legalization for many of the estimated 9 million foreigners living in the United States.
Organizations such as the National Immigration Forum and the Service Employees International Union are spearheading the effort, which aims to collect a million postcards to send to Congress and the president before November's election.*

So far Congress has been unwilling to pass even a much more modest effort to make it easier for perhaps 300,000 foreign residents, most of them spouses or minor children of American citizens or permanent residents, to obtain legal status.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has introduced legislation to these qualified foreigners to receive their permanent "green cards" in the United States, without going to their home countries and waiting, perhaps years, for approval.
President Bush urged passage of this measure, known by its technical name "245i," even as he signed the new border security bill Tuesday.
The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday night rejected a version of that proposal.