Last-minute lawmaking: the Bush administration bashed immigrants until the end.(NEWS)

IN ITS LAST DAYS IN OFFICE, the Bush administration pushed through a round of anti-immigration policies that will affect deportation hearings, FBI records and worker visas.

One of those changes was made by former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, who ruled that immigrants no longer have the right to reopen their cases based on claims that their attorneys were incompetent or fraudulent. This means that if their private attorneys failed to show up to court or file legal documents, immigrants do not have any recourse.

The new Attorney General, Eric Holder, said he would reexamine the decision, adding that while he understood Mukasey's desire to expedite immigration court proceedings, those hearings need to be fair.

"It was reassuring to know he felt that this affected the due-process rights of immigrants, and we're hoping he continues to see that as he reexamines the decision," said Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.

Advocates are also hoping for a reversal of the Bush administration's decision to collect DNA from any person arrested or detained for suspicious immigration status. FBI officials are expecting to add more than 1.3 million DNA samples from ...