Controls for an Alien Invasion

The Administration's new policy on immigration

WILL THE LAST AMERICAN LEAVING SOUTH FLORIDA PLEASE BRING THE FLAG So reads a bumper sticker in Miami. It is one small sign of Floridians' growing anger about the 150,000 Cuban and Haitian refugees who have beached on their state's shores since the 1980 Mariel boatlift. Although the care of undocumented aliens from the Caribbean is a federal responsibility, the burden of supporting them has fallen mostly on Florida, and Governor Robert Graham has had enough of it. He is suing the Federal Government for failure to curtail immigration into South Florida. Says he: "The status quo is intolerable."

Indeed, no one questions that American immigration policy has been notoriously lax. Although the U.S. welcomes 270,000 legal immigrants yearly, at the President's discretion a flood of Cuban and Haitian refugees swelled that number to more than 800,000 last year. An additional 500,000 to 1 million entered the U.S. illegally, most of them along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

The Reagan Administration plans to respond to the alien crisis this week with a new set of guidelines on immigration. The proposals, which must be approved by Congress, would increase slightly the number of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. At the same time, the Government would try to stanch the flow of illegal aliens by strengthening the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and by levying penalties on employers who hire illegal aliens.

The new guidelines were developed by a task force headed by Attorney General William French Smith. The limit of 270,000 legal immigrants would be increased to 310,000 to accommodate a new ceiling of 40,000 for Canada and Mexico. For illegal aliens already in the country, the Administration would offer Limited amnesty. Those who arrived before January 1980 would be allowed to stay on a "temporary" basis if they have means of support and no criminal convictions. They would qualify as permanent resident aliens after either five or ten years--a question still being debated--if they pass an English language test. The Cubans and Haitians who arrived by boat before January 1981 would also be put on temporary status. All temporaries would be ineligible for welfare or unemployment benefits, but they could send their children to public schools.

The most important part of Reagan's program, however, is the crackdown on illegal aliens. The Administration wants to increase the INS budget by $150 million, partly to provide more agents to patrol the Mexican-American border. Reagan also proposes to fine businesses that employ four or more people up to $1,000 for each illegal alien they hire. Although Reagan has rejected Attorney General Smith's proposal for a counterfeit-proof Social Security card, the Administration will recommend that an alien job seeker must produce two forms of identification for employers and must sign a form swearing that he is in the U.S. legally.

The proposals have already come under harsh attack. Tony Bonilla, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, has denounced the amnesty plan as "tantamount to establishing serfdom." Some conservative Republicans oppose employer sanctions as yet another form of Government regulation. The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund says the sanctions will lead to job discrimination against Hispanics. Other critics argue that without a certain method of identifying illegal aliens, sanctions will be impossible to enforce. Nonetheless, there is little support for a national I.D. card. Acknowledges Republican Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming, who supports some kind of I.D.: "It conjures up images of jackboots at the door."

Big farmers of the West who use the cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants welcome one provision of the Reagan package. Recognizing the fact that thousands of Mexicans crisscross the border every year for jobs, the Administration would allow 50,000 guest workers into the U.S. for nine to twelve months. They would have to leave their families behind, but would be paid a minimum wage and be eligible for health care. Says Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo: "We will insist that migratory rights not be confused with labor rights and human rights."

Immigration policy was perhaps the toughest issue debated so far by Reagan's Cabinet, and the recommendations clearly represent something of a compromise.

"It has badly divided the Administration," says Roger Conner, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform: "The libertarians scream about getting the Government off the backs of the people, while the law-and-order types see our laws as a mockery. The pragmatists see all pain and no gain and wonder why the Administration got involved at all." Now the problem is in the hands of Congress, which is also badly split by regional and ethnic quarrels on this emotional issue.

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