Emerging From a Life in Shadow

For most of her 25 years, Catalina Herrera has lived a life shrouded in uncertainty and fear. An undocumented immigrant, she has had to work off the books, and her ambitions to go to college were dashed because she did not qualify for the lower enrollment fees that citizens and permanent residents pay.

Herrera’s biggest concern, however, was that she and her family, who have lived in America since 1980, would one day be deported to their native Mexico.

“I was always afraid that the INS might get us,” Herrera said.

Now, however, the settlement of two class-action lawsuits that had been moving through the court system since 1987 -- most of Herrera’s life -- could change her circumstances dramatically.

The settlements will allow more than 100,000 illegal immigrants to apply for permanent-resident status, beginning around March. Those affected are people who applied for residency status during the amnesty of the mid-1980s but were turned down because they had traveled outside the United States during their residence.

Lawyers representing some of the plaintiffs in the protracted suits said the settlements would allow thousands of well-established, but undocumented, U.S. residents the chance to end their underground lives. An estimated 40% of the original rejected amnesty seekers were California residents, according to lawyers involved in the suits.

“They will finally be able to work legally, report crimes without fear of deportation, enroll in colleges and eventually apply for citizenship,” said Peter Schey, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. “It’s been an incredible saga for this population, and they finally see light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

By contrast, some who argue that U.S. immigration policy should be more restrictive see the settlements as a large step backward. Granting amnesty gives legal forgiveness to illegal immigrants who have successfully evaded justice for years, they say.

“It’s simply wrong to reward people who have broken the law,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “It puts them in a more advantageous position than people who obey the law. They get in on the basis of being here, as opposed to those who have been waiting years to immigrate.”

Availability of the amnesty option also could threaten national security, Mehlman said, because illegal immigrants might not be subject to background checks as thorough as those by U.S. consular officers in their homelands.

“It encourages more people to come here illegally,” Mehlman said. By doing that, he said, “you provide cover for people who mean to do this country real harm.”

At issue in the lawsuits were the rules for amnesty under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The law included a one-time provision for amnesty for illegal immigrants who had lived continuously in the United States between 1982 and 1987.

When the amnesty was implemented, the Immigration and Naturalization Service rejected amnesty applications from those who had traveled abroad. Even a short trip outside the country meant a person’s residence had not been “continuous,” the INS said.

In Herrera’s case, the disqualification resulted from a brief trip to Mexico that her family took in 1987.

About 250,000 people were disqualified under the continuous-residence rule, and their cases were consolidated into the two class actions.

During the 15 years in which the cases were before the courts, the INS appealed seven times to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and once to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to preserve its policy. The agency defended its decision, in part on the grounds that it suspected fraudulent claims by many of the so-called “late-amnesty” seekers.

Now, however, officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that has succeeded the INS, say settlement of the cases will help settle the matter.

“This will allow all the parties to finally have resolution,” Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassburger said. “But this is by no means a new amnesty.”

If they are to qualify for such a resolution, he said, applicants “had to be eligible under the 1986 law.”

Hearings will be held by the federal courts in early January to grant final approval of the settlements. Assuming the agreements are approved, a 60-day publicity period will follow. Beginning in March, those covered by the settlements will have a year to apply for amnesty under the 1986 law.

Lawyers involved in the cases say many of the likely beneficiaries are professionals -- accountants, engineers, teachers and artists -- who have spent their entire adult lives in the United States and have established deep roots. Several own homes and have U.S.-born children.

“The vast majority of this population would be United States citizens by now and fully integrated into society,” Schey said. “Instead, they have experienced exploitation on the job, fear of reporting crime, inability to get health care or enroll in colleges. They really suffered needlessly.”

Hollywood film editor Anil Urmil, a citizen of India, was unable to travel home when his grandparents died in the late 1990s. Although he now has a temporary work permit, for most of his 22-year stay in the United States he has been racked by anxiety and fear of deportation.

Urmil said settlement of the lawsuits provided “a ray of hope,” but was not an immediate remedy because most of the plaintiffs would still need to win approval of their amnesty applications next year.

“It essentially means getting my life back,” said Urmil, 40, who objects to being referred to as “undocumented” because he has an alien registration number, possesses a work permit and has paid U.S. taxes for more than a decade. He argues that the plaintiffs should be viewed as victims because their legal rights were denied.

“It overwhelms me with emotion, being that it’s been such a long time, a long struggle,” Urmil said. “Over half my life has been spent waiting for the resolution of these cases.”

Although some illegal immigrants say they are skeptical that the government will really approve their amnesty applications, Herrera said she was elated over the prospect that she soon might be able to apply to college as a permanent resident. She said she hoped to study criminal justice.

“This is a relief for all of us,” said Herrera, one of nine children, whose parents also will apply for amnesty next year.

“It’s a burden that has been lifted off our shoulders. I’m very excited.”