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"Graphic Queen" <xxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.com> wrote in message
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> Bill seeks legal status for 9/11 families
> By Stephen Dinan
> THE WASHINGTON TIMES
> August 27, 2005
>
>
> Members of Congress from New York have written a bill to grant
> permanent legal status to illegal aliens whose spouse or parent was
> killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks.
>     The bill would apply both to those who were here illegally at the
> time of the attacks and those here legally as family members of
> someone with a work or student visa.
>     Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Democrat, said that with the
> four-year observance of the attacks looming, it is time to take care
> of people who consider themselves in a legal limbo.
>     "We are talking about a small number of people who have suffered
> the loss of a father, mother, husband or wife on 9/11," she said. "For
> us to allow their deportation, regardless of their status, would be
> wrong. I can't believe the Congress would let that happen."
>     She filed the bill before Congress began its summer recess, and
> announced it yesterday.
>     Congress included a temporary solution in the Patriot Act,
> allowing children and spouses of those here legally on September 11 to
> stay for one year. Since then, the administration has not pressed for
> those who remain to be deported, Mrs. Maloney said.
>     The cause has bipartisan support in New York, having been endorsed
> in 2003 by Gov. George E. Pataki and, according to backers, by New
> York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. But its prospects are not clear
> in Congress, where most members have distanced themselves recently
> from anything that could be construed as amnesty for illegal aliens.
>     The aliens could ask Congress to pass private bills on a
> case-by-case basis, but Congress rarely passes such measures.
>     Under the new bill, people would be eligible for permanent legal
> residence if they had been officially recognized by the compensation
> fund set up for families of the victims. A ruling by that fund's
> special master, Kenneth Feinberg, opened the fund to illegal aliens.
>     Backers said families who were awarded money from the fund might
> be targets for kidnapping if they were deported to their home
> countries in Latin America. Payments to victims averaged about $2
> million.
>     The bill's backers don't know how many people would be eligible
> from the group of those who were here legally at the time of the
> attacks. But lawyers say they have identified about 30 people who were
> here illegally and are seeking legalization.
>     "It's 30 people, and without this legislation they will disappear,
> and how horrible would it be if one of the families of our 9/11
> victims were deported, were harmed because of that action?" said Debra
> Brown Steinberg, a lawyer who represents some of the illegal aliens
> pro bono.
>     Mrs. Maloney introduced a similar bill in 2003, though that
> version only applied to those here legally at the time of the attacks.
> It, and similar bills in the Senate, died for lack of action in the
> two chambers' Judiciary committees.
>