Adjustment of Status under Section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act

This Comment examines the legislative development of section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and how the adjustment of status procedure has been slowly liberalized to allow virtually any alien present in the United States to quality to apply for adjustment. The author argues that this procedure has been abused and applied unfairly, in that aliens who apply for adjustment while in the United States are afforded due process and judicial review while those who apply while in their home countries are denied these protections. The author further argues that the recent passage of the Simpson-Mazzoli Bill will not prevent such manipulation of the immigration system and the adjustment of status procedure, but will instead penalize those aliens who require the aid of section 245.