ABSTRACT
On September 11 and 12, 1995, the “lobby days” organized by the National Immigration Forum (NIF), about 350 people converged on the House of Representatives office buildings, where they saw their representatives, or, in many cases, their representatives’ staff members who were responsible for immigration policy. Even before the lobby day started, NIF officials were optimistic that they could win support from a few Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, enough to reverse some of the most important decisions that the subcommittee had made. “As a result of visits by advocates,” NIF told its members, several key Republicans have begun to express misgivings . . . and may now be inclined to split the bill, rethink the refugee cap and family immigration categories [and] soften the asylum and summary exclusion provisions.” After lobby day, NIF told its members that the effort had been a “grand success,” and that their visits had left members of Congress with “plenty to think about as they consider some of the egregious provisions.”2
