LIFE Act of 2000: 25 years of casting an immigration lifeline

In the spirit of this newspaper’s 25th anniversary, the topic of today’s special column deals with a special provision of the US immigration law — part of the Legal Immigration Family Equity Act of 2000 (LIFE Act) — which took effect almost 25 years ago on 21 December 2000.

Like a proverbial lifeline, the LIFE Act amended certain parts of the US Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), specifically Section 245(i) thereof, by extending and fortifying a special provision of the law that offers a legal pathway for people in the US who are otherwise ineligible to become legal permanent residents.

Included are people who entered the country illegally or without inspection, people who worked without authorization, and those who failed to maintain a lawful status, provided that they were the beneficiary (principal, grandfathered, or derivative) of a qualifying immigrant visa petition or labor certification application filed on their behalf on or before the law’s sunset date of 30 April 2001, that they were physically present in the US on 21 December 2000, and that a visa is available at the time of adjustment of status.

The measure, with a mandated penalty fee of $1,000, was an extension of a prior version, enacted in 1994 with a sunset date of 14 January 1998.

Prior to the original law’s enactment, people who entered the country illegally, worked without authorization, or failed to maintain lawful status were not allowed to adjust their status to permanent resident, except for the immediate relatives (spouse, children and parents) of US citizens who entered the country legally.

However, even the immediate relatives of US citizens who entered the country illegally, i.e., crossed the border or jumped ship without being inspected, were not allowed to adjust their status to permanent resident.

Consequently, and due to the disqualifying impact of certain provisions of the INA, specifically the “3-year/10-year bar” rule against those who overstayed or violated their status for more than six months or one year, respectively, many people were not able to legalize their status despite having a valid immigrant sponsorship from a relative or employer.

Section 245(i) of INA, as extended and boosted by the LIFE Act 25 years ago, changed all that.

Since the law’s enactment on 21 December 2000, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of qualified beneficiaries — including tens of thousands of Filipino “illegals” — had availed of the program’s semi-amnesty feature.

However, due to the passage of more than two decades since the law’s sunset date of 30 April 2001, its relevance has diminished gradually, the number of people covered by the program having proportionately gone down every year.

At this time, it is assumed that that most of the beneficiaries of a qualifying immigrant visa petition or labor certification application filed on or before 30 April 2001 have already availed of the process, with the exception of the very few who are still waiting for their priority dates to become current (such as those petitioned by their US citizen siblings decades ago).

Despite the law’s diminishing relevance, no one can deny the LIFE Act’s monumentally positive impact on the lives of millions of immigrants and their families — including tens of thousands of Filipino-American beneficiaries — in the past two decades.