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Amnesty Deadline Draws Near
Thousands of undocumented immigrants have until Saturday to apply under a 1986 program that may never be repeated.
By Anna Gorman

6:56 PM PST, December 25, 2005

Almost 20 years have passed since Congress approved an amnesty for nearly 3 million immigrants living illegally in the United States, but for perhaps as many as 100,000 undocumented residents, the door is still open.

It closes Saturday.

With the final deadline approaching, lawyers are reaching out to those immigrants who may still be eligible for green cards under the 1986 amnesty program.

They are people like Valentin Badillo, a San Gabriel Valley resident who crossed the U.S. border illegally in 1980. After the amnesty took effect, Badillo applied, but a trip he'd made back to Mexico to visit his ill father disqualified him.

Under the rules in force at the time, people who left the country between 1982 and 1987, even for brief trips, were rejected for the amnesty. But as a result of a legal settlement in two class-action lawsuits, that changed. Now, people such as Badillo have until Dec. 31 to reapply for legal residency.

Without immigration papers, Badillo said, he has had to work under the table â€â€