The Nation - News from March 31, 1988

The nation’s immigration chief declared the government’s alien amnesty program an unqualified success, but Democrats on a House committee assailed his “miserly” opposition to its extension. Alan C. Nelson, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, told members of a House immigration subcommittee that applications from aliens, including those filed under a separate seasonal agricultural worker program, are approaching 1.5 million, “a very dramatic total.” But with only five weeks until the main legalization program’s May 4 deadline, and applications still expected to fall far short of estimates, Nelson once again rejected congressional calls to extend the deadline.