With the current bill’s focus on workers and de-emphasis on family ties, many LEGAL immigrants are concerned about what this means for the fate of their families. For all of the undocumented immigrants in this country, there are many others who have applied for the right paperwork, come here to work, and then applied again for family members to join them. The process is expensive, inconvenient, and can take several years. In January, President Bush signed legislation doubling the fees for all immigration applications. Immigrants with pending applications are scared that all there efforts will be for naught if the worker-based reform bill passes.  If nothing else, it will cause a shakeup at USCIS and certainly delay processing times for most applications while workers and immigration attorneys get up to speed on the new laws.


