By Tim Vandenack
The Hutchinson News

"I saw my family, the poverty," Marino said.

In the 1970s, his father had worked with a permit that let him travel between the United States and Mexico. But with no such option available when his turn to enter the workforce came up, Marino, now a meatpacker here, took matters into his own hands.

"That pushed me to come here illegally," he said, remembering the mad scramble over a chain-link fence separating Tijuana from southern California.

Many others have similar stories - there are perhaps 12 million illegal immigrants in the country, some say - and immigration experts and others say it shouldn't come as a big surprise. Though there might be jobs, scant means exist for low-income, low-skilled foreigners to enter the United States legally to take them, prompting many to sneak across the border.

"I would have gone that way if I could," said Marino, now a legal U.S. resident, referring to the program that let his father enter the country. "It didn't exist anymore. I couldn't."

Indeed, it strikes Angela Ferguson, a Kansas City, Mo., immigration attorney, whenever she hears people say they have no problem with immigrants, as long as they enter legally.

"They just don't have a clue of how difficult the process is," said Ferguson, who also practices in Garden City.

'A long wait'

In light of the apparent disparity between labor demand and supply, a controversial U.S. Senate proposal emerged last month that would allow more foreigners in to do low-skilled work. Some decry such plans as misguided, saying lack of workers isn't the issue, but depressed wages that don't appeal to natives.

A guest-worker element would let up to 325,000 people in per year on a temporary basis, said Laura Reiff of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, which favors moves to grant some illegal immigrants pathways to legal residency. Another prong would increase the quota of low-skilled workers potentially eligible for U.S. residency from about 5,000 per year to 250,000.

As is, the most common means for Mexicans to attain legal residency here and the ability to work legally are through U.S. citizen or U.S. resident family members. Latinos, particularly Mexicans, account for the largest share of southwest Kansas' immigrant population, and Mexicans account for the biggest chunk of the nation's overall undocumented population.

But the process can take years, trying the patience of someone hoping for a job now. First there's the paperwork, background checks and medical exams. Then there's the delay while U.S. authorities process the information.

"It's a long wait," said Consuelo Sandoval of United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries in Garden City, which assists immigrants.

People without a family member to petition on their behalf essentially are out of luck.

The Mexican spouse or minor children of a U.S. citizen, meanwhile, face the shortest wait, as little as a year. From there, the wait gets longer and longer, particularly for legal residents petitioning for their Mexican family members. Residency is one step short of citizenship. For instance:

* The unmarried Mexican children over 21 years of age of a U.S. citizen must wait more than 15 years.

* The brothers and sisters of a U.S. citizen must wait more than 12 years.

* The spouse and minor children of a U.S. resident must wait more than six years. That is the largest category of people Sandoval helps process.

* The unmarried children over 21 of a legal resident must wait more than 14 years.

The wait stems from the backlog of cases U.S. officials must process and annual quotas set for each country. For processing of residency requests, U.S. immigration officials divvy the world into five zones: Mexico, the Philippines, India and China - which all together account for the bulk of petitions - and the rest of the world.