Policeman Feels Long Arm of Law : INS Says He Has to Be Deported

When Ian Page is not fighting crime as a Santa Monica police officer, he is usually battling with federal immigration authorities. Page, a former bobby in his native England, is under orders to leave the United States by June 6--simply, his friends say, because of bungled paper work and an inflexible bureaucracy.

Page’s colleagues and friends have urged the Immigration and Naturalization Service to use its discretionary power to let Page remain in the country while his application for permanent residency makes its way through the system.

But, although Page has been subpoenaed to testify in a number of criminal cases, including a kidnaping and a sexual assault, INS District Director Ernest Gustafson has refused to give him the time he needs to obtain his permanent residency visa.

Letter of the Law

To Page and his supporters, Gustafson represents a heartless government agency, willing to jeopardize criminal court cases, deprive Santa Monica of a policeman with almost 18 years of experience and disrupt the lives of Page and his family in an effort to enforce the law without exception.

“I was taking a piece of the American pie and then somebody said it’s poisoned,” Page said with controlled anger. “There is nothing more unusual or unjust about the punishment I am receiving for something that is not my fault. I understand the law, but they have the power to be flexible.”

Gustafson agrees that he has the authority to let Page stay. But if he did so, he added, “I would not be loyal to the law.”

A Complicated Tale

Page’s story is a complicated tale of an immigrant whose road to the American dream has been fraught with bad advice, years of attempting to comply with the system and even a suggestion of fraud.

In 1980 Page and his wife, Susan, both of whom are now 38 years old, and their son Leon, now 13, left the city of Worcester and moved to California.

“I had a very good career but when I came here (on vacation) and saw the rights of the people, the ability of the public to change laws, the overall feeling of well being, I decided to move,” the burly officer recalled.

In a matter of months, Page had obtained a two-year student visa and was taking classes at Rio Hondo Police Academy in Whittier. While he was studying at the academy he was recruited by the Santa Monica Police Department. The city promised to apply to the federal government for a permanent residency visa and work certificate, which would enable him to legally live and work in this country.

A foreigner may qualify for a permanent residency visa if he is offered a job by an employer who can show the federal government it cannot find a qualified American citizen to fill the position.

That was no problem, said Santa Monica Police Chief James F. Keane: “We get plenty of applicants, but not many qualified applicants.”

Santa Monica police officers must pass a psychological evaluation, a polygraph test, an intensive background check, a medical examination, a physical fitness test, three months of work at a police academy and then survive a one-year probationary period before they can become permanent members of the department, Keane said.

Manpower Shortage

“As a result,” he said, “we haven’t been up to full strength for a quarter of a century.”

Santa Monica applied for permission to let Page work for the city in 1981, and he was soon on the beat. But problems quickly arose because the city made a mistake.

The city’s application was rejected in July, 1983, because officials failed to follow federal guidelines pertaining to the way Page’s job was advertised, said Greg Oester, Page’s current attorney.

Employers must first advertise for a qualified American employee before the government will permit a foreigner to fill the position. In Page’s case, the city placed one of the ads in a publication that the federal government considered inadequate.

The city decided to appeal the denial rather than fulfill the advertising requirements, Oester said. In November, 1984, the appeal was denied.

“It was a bungled effort” by the city, he said. “Had it been handled properly three years would have been ample time” in which to process the city’s residency application for him.

In the meantime, Santa Monica hired a specialist in immigration law to try to unravel the case.

Called Technical

The attorney, Ron Bonaparte, said the defect in the city’s application “was very technical and probably would not have happened if officials had gotten proper counsel. I felt when we got the case that . . . technical problems should be waived, but the government would not do so.”

At a July, 1985, deportation hearing, Page was ordered to leave the country by June of this year because he did not have a proper visa.

A day before the hearing, the city filed a new application requesting a permanent residency visa for Page. But because of the backlog of requests for permanent visas, both Oester and Gustafson agree that Page will not receive a visa for another 12 to 24 months--well past the date on which he must leave the country.

Page’s predicament appears to be a classic Catch-22: If he is out of the country for more than a year he may lose his job, Chief Keane said, since the department is not allowed to grant anyone a leave of absence for more than one year.

And without a job waiting for him in this country, it is possible that the INS may not issue him a permanent visa, Oester said.

Departure Date Extension

Page’s lawyers say the solution is simple: Extend his departure date. But, even though the city’s second application for Page’s visa may be in order, Gustafson said he will not let Page wait in the United States.

“To give him a year to stay here,” Gustafson said, “is not fair to the large number of people waiting outside the U.S. in line to get their visas.”

And exceptions are made only if there are any “meritorious issues out of the norm and ordinary,” he said. An example would be a medical emergency.

According to Gustafson, the fact that Page’s first application was bungled, the criminal cases in which he is required to testify and his past service to the INS do not qualify as issues out of the norm.

Page’s participation in an INS undercover investigation began in July, 1983, when agents informed him that the temporary work authorization papers obtained for him were fraudulent. Gustafson confirmed that Page assisted in an INS investigation, which did not result in any indictments.

As for the criminal cases, if Page is not available to testify, it could adversely affect several cases, said Deputy Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Jim Bascue.

Support Group

As Page’s deadline approaches, supporters have formed a group to pressure elected officials to persuade Gustafson or his superiors in the Justice Department to relent and let Page remain here. A recent meeting of the group, Keep Officer Page (KOP), drew 85 people, but Oester is nonetheless pessimistic.

“There is no formal appeal that can be taken by Ian,” Oester said. “It is in Gustafson’s hands and the law does not provide an appeal from that.”

But Gustafson said he will not change his mind. If he let Page stay, “I would have immediately thousands of lesser-type cases in less prestigious professions saying, ‘How about me?’ ”

Making an exception for Page, he said, would amount to “favoritism and not equally applying the law. It boils down to a local government has failed to do their job right and now a federal agency gets blamed for having to take care of their problem.

“It is one of those things where nobody wins,” Gustafson said. “He is a nice guy in an honorable profession.”

Continuing Efforts

But Page and his attorneys have not given up. On Friday, Oester and a second lawyer, David Ross, were successful in their effort to persuade Immigration Judge Ingrid Hyrcinko to consider whether to reopen Page’s case.

The whole ordeal has left Page shaken.

“You can’t imagine what it must be like to have your whole life and career coming to an end,” he said. “My wife sees a doctor for nervous anxiety. My son has become withdrawn and difficult and I guess I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck a few times.”

In the course of his duties, Page has occasionally been part of a contingent of Santa Monica police officers who have helped to guard President Reagan at Santa Monica Airport.

“Isn’t that irony?” Page said. “I’m good enough to guard the President but not good enough to stay.”