CLINTON VOWS TO ALTER IMMIGRATION LAW : PRESIDENT TRIES TO REASSURE CARIBBEAN, CENTRAL AMERICAN LEADERS.

Byline: James Bennet The New York Times

After meeting here Thursday with the leaders of seven Central American and Caribbean nations, President Clinton said he would seek to blunt a new law to restrict illegal immigration and compel deportations.

Clinton defended the thrust of the law but said he would suspend one provision until Oct. 1 while he tries to persuade Congress to amend it. Administration officials said the president did not respond to a proposal by El Salvador President Armando Calderon Sol that he seek an amnesty proposed for some of the immigrants from this region.

At Thursday's summit, intended to underscore the economic potential of this newly democratic region, Central American leaders laid out their concerns about the legislation. Clinton signed it in September during the presidential election campaign, when illegal immigration emerged as a major issue, but he has the power to delay its enforcement.

The leaders said they feared the law would compel the return of hundreds of thousands of immigrants that the United States originally admitted temporarily as political refugees, before the Cold War ended and wars subsided in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Not only would their return strain job markets at home; it would deprive the migrants' home countries of the hard currency they send back to their families.

Clinton said he shared the concern about deportations. ``There will be no mass deportations or targeting of citizens from any country,'' he said. ``They will have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.''

But Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner acknowledged that without congressional action to amend the law, ``the level of removals from the United States will steadily increase.''

She declined to specify what changes Clinton would seek, saying that could jeopardize discussions with Congress, which have already begun.

Under the law, Clinton is able to exempt only 4,000 of the now-illegal immigrants annually from deportation. It is that provision he plans to suspend.

Meissner estimated that the total population of such Central American immigrants in the United States is ``in the neighborhood of 300,000-plus.''

She said about 150,000 are Salvadorans, 100,000 Guatemalans and 40,000 Nicaraguans. Those immigrants account for only a fraction of the 5 million illegal immigrants believed to be in the United States.

Under previous law, illegal immigrants were vulnerable to deportation. But immigration judges had wide latitude to grant exemptions, latitude that the new law restricts.

Administration officials said Clinton also assured the Mexicans during his visit that he would seek to change a part of the law that would force illegal immigrants to return home while they waited for legal status, which could take years. That provision could affect many Mexicans, who are believed to account for 40 percent of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Clinton had previously suspended the provision on deportations, which was to take effect April 1, until August. He expressed confidence Thursday that Congress would agree to amend it, suggesting that the United States bears some responsibility for the influx of immigrants because of its intervention in this region during the Cold War.

After the meeting, some leaders said they were pleased with what they had heard. Calderon said, ``There is time from now until September for a joint initiative with the Congress and to awaken more awareness within the Congress concerning this issue.''