TV & VIDEO - May 7, 1987

NBC Chicago correspondent James Makawa stunned network officials Tuesday by signing up for the government’s new amnesty program as an illegal immigrant. Makawa fled Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1977, came to this country as a student and overstayed his visa, a violation of the law, he said Wednesday during an interview on NBC’s “Today” show. Makawa expressed relief at signing up for the program: “You constantly lived in fear from day to day. You never knew if you were going to wake up one day and find an Immigration (and Naturalization Service) van outside your apartment. It was hell.”