Sungkyu Yun, executive director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NKASEC), which is based in Flushing, joined the New York Immigration Coalition at a news conference.
"Congress and the President should do the right thing and the smart thing permanently restore this provision of law that lets people who are eligible for a visa obtain it here rather in their home country," he said.
Yun said that it is "ridiculous to only open up this provision for four months."
The deadline for filing last week enabled immigrants with a qualified family member or employer sponsoring them to adjust their status without leaving the U.S., risking separation from their families or employers for prolonged periods.
Meanwhile, Governor George E. Pataki called for an extension of the deadline of the Legal Immigration and Family Equity (LIFE) Act."I now urge Congress to take up the bill sponsored by more than two dozen Congressmen that would extend the green card application process for an additional six months," he said.
As immigrants jammed INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) offices, the Coalition deplored the visa processing system that left thousands of immigrants out in the cold.
Margie McHugh, executive director of NYIC, urged the government to permanently restore provisions that would end backlogs and offer immigrants the opportunity to apply for visas.
"Projected backlogs in the visa system mean that it will likely take five to fifteen years for those applying now to obtain their visas and become U.S. citizens," she said.
The rush forced the closing of overwhelmed immigration centers in Flushing and Astoria. The Flushing Immigration Centers Director Ray Chen, had to turn down prospective applicants.
"This is the craziest time Ive ever had in the business of serving people to file immigration papers. I had to work until midnight this week."
Chen said he receives about 100 calls a day from Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean immigrants in Flushing who want to apply for U.S. residency. Normally, they would have to go back to their homelands to apply.
Zhu Xian Chen of Flushing and his wife Lin say theyve already got legal status, but they have friends who arent so lucky."I know a lot of friends who want to apply for green cards by the [April] 30th, but they have been turned away because every place was too crowded," said Chen.
In Astoria, a local immigration service has been closed since Wednesday as it already has more than 17,000 cases to work on for immigrants from 90 different countries.
At Mondays news conference at The New York Immigration Coalition, Dolores Armendariz of Corona recounted her experience over the years. She said her husband, Gilberto, received his green card on Apr. 12, 2000, after being sponsored by his employer as a mechanic. He waited for five years to receive his papers. The couple was married last Thurs., Apr. 26, after waiting in line since two in the morning. The next day, they filed the paperwork necessary for the husband to file for his wife.
Dolores is a native of Ecuador and has been in the U.S. for 16 months. Gilberto is a native of Mexico and has been in the U.S. for about nine years. She will have to wait about four years to receive her legal permanent residency.
The visa deadline produced a mad dash to the altar for thousands of immigrants across the City. One couple, Tara Sing and Harshnanie Boadnareine were recently married at Queens Borough Hall. Shes from Guyana with legal status and hopes to confer it on her new husband who moved to Richmond Hill from India.
The couple met on the street. She was a college student and he was doing construction next door. Then a year later after an overnight wait they were hitched at Borough Hall.
Another immigrant living in Queens had this to say:"Its something Im doing because I love the guy, not because Im trying to be legal."
Others acknowledged the deadline is a factor.
"The deadline is the thirtieth [of April] and if I want to keep my woman here, I got to get married," said one man.
According to the latest update of immigration to the City, the City Department of City Planning cited leading neighborhoods of settlement, including Astoria (7,500), Flushing, Elmhurst and Forest Hills-Kew Gardens (5,000), Corona (4,600) and Jackson Heights (4,200).
During the two-year period from 1995-1996 (the latest period for which figures are available), 231,400 immigrants settled in the City, for an annual average of 115,700. This was a 2.7 percent increase from the average of 112,600 immigrants annually in the 1990-1994 period.
