American Notes IMMIGRATION

The 100 people lined up outside Houston's Immigration and Naturalization Service office had camped overnight with blankets and lawn chairs. At the Dallas INS office, a pregnant Hispanic woman stepped out of line into a bathroom and went into labor. Throughout the U.S. last month, 200,000 aliens rushed to apply for legal status before a yearlong amnesty program expires on May 4. To qualify, they must prove they were residing in the U.S. before Jan. 1, 1982.

The last-minute surge bumped the number of amnesty applications to 1.73 million, still far short of the 3 million the Federal Government had expected. Nonetheless, by a vote of 56 to 40, the Senate last week refused to consider an extension of the program.