PERSPECTIVE ON IMMIGRATION : ‘Reform’ Unfairly Targets Families : Americans support a cutback, but it doesn’t have to cut off parents and siblings.

Throughout our history, immigrants have come to America, established themselves and been joined by other members of their families. That process has brought us energetic individuals and strong families who have enriched our economy and our way of life. This has been our heritage--until now.

Congress is considering the largest immigration reduction in seven decades, in bills sponsored by Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas). Under the guise of preference for “the nuclear family,” they would bar most parents, adult children and brothers and sisters from joining their families here. One example: Citizens would be required to purchase health and nursing home insurance for their parents before they emigrate, a virtual impossibility that, the Justice Department observes, “would render. . .[the parents] category largely meaningless.”

Few people realize that immigration already is strictly regulated and limited. Only close family members of U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents can immigrate, and only within the numerical limits set by Congress. (“Close” does not include aunts, uncles or cousins.) Essentially the only other way to become a permanent resident and eventually a U.S. citizen is as an employer-sponsored immigrant or as a refugee.

Contrary to popular perception, overall legal immigration admissions declined in 1994 and 1995. Yet 1.1 million people who are eligible are waiting to get in.

Proponents of barring adult children and siblings argue that it is necessary in order to make more room for the “nuclear families” on the waiting list. What they don’t say is that this will have the effect of giving preference to non-U.S. citizens over Americans. For an estimated 850,000 of the 1.1 million people on the backlog actually are the relatives of illegal aliens who were granted amnesty under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

The backlog of immediate relatives of permanent residents is only temporary. More important, nearly all of those legalized under the amnesty have met the five-year residency requirement and could become U.S. citizens, which would entitle them to bring in their spouses or children immediately. Furthermore, people in the backlog are not necessarily separated from their families. An estimated half of the spouses and children said to be waiting for admission are physically in the United States, many illegally, others under quasi-legal status granted by the Immigration Act of 1990. So the backlog is a poor excuse for dismantling the entire family immigration system.

In fact, the legislation would make it harder for families to reunite. Under the House bill, a man who does not earn at least twice the poverty-level family wage cannot even sponsor his wife or child for immigration. Anyone who views the family as society’s basic building block should be alarmed by this legislation.

The House bill actually would stop all immigration except for spouses and minor children of citizens and refugees unless Congress votes otherwise in an overhaul of the immigration law in 2005. A few determined senators could block such legislation and thus achieve the long-standing goal of anti-immigration activists: a moratorium on virtually all immigration.

While surveys show that most Americans want to cut immigration, they are less sure when it comes down to specifics. For example, Republican pollster Vince Breglio of RSM Inc., found a 2-1 margin in support of continuing to admit adult children and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens.

Many siblings of citizens are in the backlog. If Congress is determined to eliminate this category, it should at the very least grandfather in those on the waiting list.

Congress also should retain the categories for the adult children of U.S. citizens and eliminate the proposed insurance requirements for parents.

“An orderly legal immigration process provides this nation a constant stream of new talent and fresh ideas that continually renew America’s vitality, strength and entrepreneurial spirit,” said Majority Leader Dick Armey. We should do something about illegal immigration but embrace the legal immigration heritage that has served our nation well.