H. R. 1885
SEC. 607. EXTENSION OF DEADLINE FOR CLASSIFICATION PETITION AND LABOR CERTIFICATION FILINGS.
a) IN GENERAL- Section 245(i)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1255(i)(1)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (B)--
A) in clause (i), by striking `on or before April 30, 2001; or' and inserting `on or before the earlier of November 30, 2002, and the date that is 120 days after the date on which the Attorney General first promulgates final or interim final regulations to carry out the amendments made by section 607(a) of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002; or'; and
(B) in clause (ii) by striking `on or before such date; and' and inserting `before August 15, 2001;';
Section 245(i) is designed to allow eligible people to adjust their status in the U.S. when their immigrant visas become available Section 245(i) of HR 1885 allows an alien to apply to adjust status under section 245 notwithstanding the fact that he or she entered without inspection, overstayed, or worked without authorization. Does that clarify it a bit?
HR 1885 is an extension of 245(i) or the initial "amnesty" that I believe was passed in 1996 and went into effect in 1997. Both H.R. 1885 and S. 778 extend Section 245(i). HR 1885 sets this as four months, and S. 778 sets this as April 30, 2002.
245(i) had what is known as "sunset provisions" and was designed to expire in April of 2001 after its extension by the LIFE Act which was enacted in 2000. It is designed to legalize the status of the 3 million illegal aliens which boomed exactly after the first amnesty was passed.
What we have is a continual chain of amnesties being sold to the people as being limited, yet are resurrected every year with new provisions.
The first amnesty created conditions which contributed to the largest boom in illegal immigration in this countries 200 year history. Although 2.7 million of the estimated 5 million illegal aliens living in the country in 1986 were given amnesty (legal permanent residence), the new estimates (2000)indicated that they have been entirely replaced by new illegal aliens and that by census year 2000 the illegal population was 3 million larger than before the last amnesty. Long story short, and in other words - it just doesn't work. This bill is designed to now give amnesty to those illegal immigrants which came in afterwards or who did not file by the deadline of April 2001.
In plain english, its essentially targeted at people who are illegally here already.
Its also fair to say, based on projections of what happened immediately after the last amnesty that this will create another illegal immigration boom, perhaps even larger than the one before.