The Billings Gazette from Billings, Montana • 7

The Billings Gazette NATION Thursday. March 21, 1996 7A US. Immigrants rush to "green card' deadline WASHINGTON (AP) Thousands of legal immigrants, some responding to rumors of mass deportations, rushed to federal offices nationwide Wednesday to renew expiring "green cards." Immigration officials said there was no threat of penalties against those with expired cards. Since late 1993, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has asked those with permanent resident alien permits issued before 1979 to renew their green cards. Those cards expired Wednesday.

But word apparently failed to reach many. "I heard nothing whatsoever, not until 6 a.m. on the radio," Larry Healy, a 67-year-old retired railroad worker originally from Ireland, said as he waited in line at the Los Angeles INS office. "If I had known about it, I would've come one month, two months ago," Healy said. "I'm retired.

I have nothing else to do." Standing next to Healy, 31-year-old South Korean native Sunmi Choi said she only learned of the deadline when her mother woke her and rushed her off downtown. "I just dropped everything and came down here," she said. An INS spokesman in San Antonio expressed some skepticism that latecomers weren't aware of the deadline. "We've been in this roughly two years and these folks have had a lot of time to get in and do this," said spokesman Ray Dudley. "A lot of them will say 'I just But actually, I think they just waited until the last minute." Still, there was confusion about which doc ument had expired.

Kim Ogden, an INS spokesman in Dallas; said many who showed up at that office worried that other immigration documents were expiring. And rumors were circulating of "mass; deportations" for holders of expired cards, her said. Lack of a new green card doesn't change a person's status as a legal resident. But failure tq obtain a new card could pose problems for those who travel abroad and then try to return to the United States, as well as for legal immigrants applying for benefits with the now-expired document, i The INS began the card-replacement effort in November 1993 in an attempt to deter counterfeiting of the green card, which is the agen cy's most counterfeited document. I t-' A Associated Press U.S.

Taxpayers Party executive Howard Phillips says the Counterfeit-proof Social Security cards rejected! party will attempt to qualify on all 50 states' ballots and then ask Pat Buchanan to be its candidate. Independent party wants Buchanan WASHINGTON (AP) The House on Wednesday rejected a plan to require the government to develop a Social Security card more resistant to counterfeiting. The vote stalled a drive to crack down on illegal aliens who use phony IDs to find jobs. The House voted, 221-191, against adding the plan to a bill calling for a major overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. Rep.

Bill McCollum's amendment met opposition from lawmakers who said the step could easily lead to the imposition of a national identification card and a system that would amass personal information on every U.S. citizen. In order to be secure, such a card would re quire a photograph of the holder, said Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. "While I strongly support appropriate measures to curb illegal immigration in employment I must oppose any proposals that would change the issuance or purpose of the current Social Security card without thorough examination," he said late Tuesday.

But McCollum, said photographs would not be required and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost at $51 million a year over the next 10 years. The House also agreed to add another provision that would punish foreigners who intentionally entered the United States illegally by permanently barring them from entering again. Members of the House voted 120-291 to reject Rep. Anthony Beilenson's request that it kill a plan to construct 14 miles of triple fencing along the Mexican border near San Diego. Be-lienson said the Justice Department doesn't, want the fence, and money could be better used repairing physical barriers now in place.

The primary author of the bill. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said he expected his plan to survive intact despite angry objections to thei measure's core provisions from both the right and the left. Opponents have few complaints about pro-; visions that would stiffen penalties for illegal aliensBut some liberals and conservatives' have united to defeat a plan to cut the numbers; of foreigners allowed to immigrate here. pens, Mr.

Buchanan will have to consider something and he will consider it strongly," said Tom Staley, North Texas chairman for Buchanan. "It would be hard to turn down a party who likes and wants you." Dan Hansen, founder of the Taxpayers Party, said in an interview that the group objects to "the so-called new world order, the graduated tax structure and the oppressive, huge, socialistic government." "Our main concern is to preserve life, liberty and property," he said in a telephone interview from Nevada. The U.S. Taxpayers Party already has begun a petition drive to collect the 43,963 signatures required to get on the Texas ballot for president. Phillips, a member of the taxpayer party's executive committee, said that come the general election, the voters of Texas will have the opportunity to vote for "a choice, not an echo." DALLAS (AP) With the GOP presidential nomination out of reach for Pat Buchanan, an independent party Wednesday began a nationwide effort to get on the November ballot and invited the commentator to top its ticket.

Buchanan's campaign manager, Bay Buchanan, said her brother is committed to running as a Republican through the convention this summer. "No decision has been made" on the offer from the U.S. Taxpayers Party, she said. "That is not something we've agreed to or I've talked to Howard formally about," she said, referring to Howard Phillips, an executive of the party. "This is something he's always wanted us to do.

It's no surprise to us." But Buchanan's Dallas-Fort Worth chairman called the U.S. Taxpayers Party proposal an option in continuing his campaign In Texas and elsewhere. "The Taxpayers Party will try to get on in 50 states. If that hap- 'I U.N. official: Iraq has biological warheads hrr-rrti fl oJF) JWr) Ho IS0 payments SMtf.tk $Mf-l iAU! Lifetime warranty in brown, mauve, biue.

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