God Save America

1/3 of Those Using Status-Changing Program Not in U.S. Lawfully

By Jon Dougherty

An immigration reform group says new federal statistics show illegal aliens are elbowing out legal entrants in the use of a program granting resident status in the United States.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, government figures show one-third of new admissions into the U.S. are illegal aliens who are changing their status through an exemption in U.S. immigration law.

Photo: Illegal aliens overwhelm Border Patrol agent.

Initially approved by Congress in 1994 but suspended in 2001, Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act allows "qualified" immigrants to obtain legal residence in the United States without being forced to first leave the country and their families for as long as several years.

Despite the suspension, however, FAIR says illegal aliens continue to be given legal resident status under 245(i) because of the backlog of applications that existed when the suspension took effect.

Section 245(i) was initially supposed to be temporary, but Congress has extended it several times. A number of lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House and Senate – as well as the Bush administration – favor yet another extension. Legislation to extend Sect. 245(i) was introduced in the House last year.

"Illegal aliens aren’t just crashing our borders – they’re also storming our legal immigration system and displacing people who are playing by the rules and patiently waiting in line," says Dan Stein, executive director of FAIR.

An official with the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, now part of the Department of Homeland Security, told WorldNetDaily anyone applying for an adjustment in status under 245(i) has to meet specific qualifications. The official said in some instances applicants were not required to be in the country legally to apply for the exemption.

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The ACLU loses case on the Ten Commandments

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2006 - The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals announced today that it would reject a request to rehear a Ten Commandments case out of Kentucky. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), who represents Mercer County, the defendants in the case, was pleased by the court’s 9-to-5 vote to not revisit the December 2005 ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Mercer County display.
 
”It’s very clear that the full appeals court believes that its three-judge panel ruled correctly in upholding the constitutionality of this display,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. ”This is an important defeat for the ACLU and other groups that are committed to removing our religious heritage and traditions from the public square. If this case is appealed to the Supreme Court, we stand ready to defend the display and remain confident that the constitutionality of the display will prevail.”
 
The December 2005 three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit voted unanimously rejecting the ACLU’s argument that the display, which includes the Commandments posted along with other historical documents in the county courthouse, violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
 
In that opinion, Circuit Judge Suhrheinrich said that the ACLU’s ”repeated reference to the separation of church and state’ . . . has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state.” The court said that a reasonable observer of Mercer County’s display would appreciate ”the role religion has played in our governmental institutions, and find it historically appropriate and traditionally acceptable for a state to include religious influences, even in the form of sacred texts, in honoring American traditions.”
 
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is the nation’s leading national public interest law firm defending religious liberty. Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the ACLJ specializes in constitutional law and is based in Washington, D.C. The ACLJ is online at http://www.aclj.org/

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