Even for people trying to follow the rules, U.S. immigration policy can be confusing, time-consuming and illogical, those who work in the field said at a conference yesterday at Duquesne University.

Because the Bush administration and immigration advocates alike agree that reform is needed, organizers of the conference, hosted by the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network, said now is the time to advocate for changes as various legislative proposals are floated.

Few dispute the system is working poorly.

Although the government tightened border enforcement beginning in the 1990s and more after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, an estimated 8 million to 10 million immigrants live in the United States illegally.

Although employing undocumented workers is illegal, 6 million are believed to hold jobs. And because there are so few avenues to legal status in the United States, the migrants keep coming, sometimes dying along the way or falling prey to smugglers who take advantage of them.

Speakers at the conference, attended by about 55 people, talked about how the system's flaws play out in individual families' lives:

An East African woman, who arrived in the United States in 1991 and was granted asylum status in 1999, waited five years for permanent resident status, and now is having difficulty getting a visa to visit her dying mother.

An adult who has become a permanent resident successfully petitions to bring a parent to the United States but then finds that the parent cannot bring a minor child into the country, forcing the family to remain divided.

A young Mexican washes dishes in Pittsburgh to make money to open the bank account in Mexico that is required to get a visa to come to the United States -- but the fact that he entered illegally to earn that bank account money could make his efforts futile.

Current policy does not take into account the needs of U.S. employers and the realities of the economic situation in countries from which people emigrate. Nor do many people recognize the contribution immigrants make to the economy, said Linda Gentile, international student adviser for Carnegie Mellon University.

"International students generate $12 billion in revenue for the United States, $630 million in Pennsylvania," she said.

Most groups advocating reform agree that the system is too cumbersome and that provisions are needed to allow people to work legally in the United States and have a simpler path toward permanent residency if they are law-abiding.

Many immigrants and advocacy groups are wary of the proposal made by President Bush last year for a "guest worker" program. It would be similar to those in place in a number of countries in Europe in which foreign-born workers are granted the right to work on a temporary basis. They saw it as a way of creating a second-class group of workers who would have no hope of becoming citizens. The proposal was also criticized by conservatives who normally support the president, who saw it as rewarding illegal immigration.

Now U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are advocating a bipartisan package that would include elements from previous proposals.

Kennedy would like to streamline many of the requirements for bringing family members to the United States, and to legalize undocumented workers who can demonstrate that they have been living in the United States for five or more years, work, pay taxes and have a basic understanding of English and U.S. civics.

McCain has advocated combining a path to legal residency for current undocumented workers with a new work-based visa that allows foreign nationals to fill jobs that U.S. workers do not take.