ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 TAG: 9704230073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Immigration supporters see the increase as temporary, but opponents argue it's time to close the door to the United States.
The United States became the legal home of 915,900 new immigrants last year, most of them family members of previous immigrants and foreign workers hired for specific jobs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said Tuesday.
The number is 27 percent higher than the 720,461 immigrants who were granted legal residency in the previous year, said the INS, which compiles the data each year.
The INS said the largest influx of immigrants came from Mexico, which accounted for 18 percent of those admitted to the United States in the 1996 fiscal year.
It said the top states of intended residency for the new immigrants were California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois.
While immigration supporters saw the increase as temporary and too small a number to worry about, opponents of current immigration policy - with the release of the new totals - said the numbers show that it's time to close the door to the United States.
``The whole system is out of control, and what we need is a an immigration time-out - a moratorium - to allow Congress to rework the system so that it protects America's long-term interests,'' said Dan Stein, executive director of the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors severe limits on immigration.
Stephen Moore, an economist at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the numbers were good news ``to those, like me, who believe that immigrants are on balance assets to the American economy and culture. ... Even for those who favor a more restrictive policy, the new numbers are hardly cause for alarm.''
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by AP.by CNB