Protecting the Homeland  Ten Ways to Keep America Safer Without
Trampling on Immigrants  7. Untangle the LawsSyed comes to the
U.S. legally as a high-tech computer whiz—one of 195,000
"special workers" who are invited into the U.S. each year. But
he loses his job when the dotcom bubble bursts, and thus his
visa-sponsoring employer. In the meantime, he has married a U.S.
citizen and had a child. He wants to legalize his status, but
the law requires him to leave America and apply from his country
of origin. Because he spent time here illegally, his re-entry
can be barred for up to 10 years—and that's not a matter of INS
inefficiency, it's the law. Why risk being separated from his
family for so long? Why bother to apply for adjustment of his
status? Hundreds of thousands don't. And the INS goes after them
at enormous cost.  That is just one of dozens of immigration
laws Congress enacted to "get tough" on illegal aliens that sent
the INS into overdrive. In the Senate hearings at the end of
June, David A. Martin,