Officials Prepare to Process Aliens : Simpson Expects Reagan to Get Landmark Bill Next Week

The Senate’s top immigration expert predicted Friday that Congress will send President Reagan next week a landmark bill overhauling the nation’s immigration laws, and federal officials outlined plans to begin processing illegal aliens for legal residency.

After Thursday’s House vote to revive the once-dormant immigration package, congressional conferees began talks to reconcile the bill with a competing version passed by the Senate more than a year ago.

Asked whether negotiators could reach agreement by Wednesday--the new target date set for adjournment of the 99th Congress--Senate Majority Whip Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), author of the Senate immigration bill, said: “Yes, you bet.”

Legal Status for Aliens

Though they differ significantly in detail, both bills would offer legal status to many illegal aliens already in the country while seeking to curb new entries by punishing employers who knowingly hire them.

In Los Angeles, Harold Ezell, commissioner of the Western Regional office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, hailed the House action and said that 13 offices would be established to process the estimated 1 million illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County who might qualify for legalization.

He praised the sanctions as the legislation’s most significant feature because “they put real teeth into immigration reform.” The sanctions would provide fines and jail sentences for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

But leaders of some Latino and immigrant rights organizations predicted that sanctions would lead to widespread discrimination, charging that employers would become fearful of hiring any Latinos.

Measure Criticized

The measure is “an extremely repressive, anti-immigrant and anti-minority bill,” said Antonio Rodriguez, director of the Center for Law and Justice in Los Angeles.

And he called the legalization program “a sham,” contending that few illegal aliens who qualify for amnesty will be able to provide the documentation needed to prove it. Under the House bill, most illegal aliens must demonstrate that they have been in the country since January, 1982, while the Senate version sets a cutoff date of before Jan. 1, 1980.

Opposition to the reform legislation was not universal in the Latino community. Five of the 11 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus voted for the bill Thursday, including Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), former caucus chairman. Two years ago when the House considered similar legislation, it was opposed by all of the caucus members.

Richardson said that amnesty would help rescue illegal aliens from exploitation by employers and others. “This bill will permit 5 to 8 million people to come out of servitude, to no longer be chattels,” he said.

Termed a ‘Sellout’

One major lobbying group that has long pushed for reforms ridiculed the House package as a “sellout” to special interests that would do little to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. “We wanted a Cadillac, we were promised a Chevy and we got a wreck,” said Dan Stein, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform here.

Roger Connor, who heads the group, said he would ask Reagan to veto any final bill if it contained a controversial House provision that would trigger an automatic end to the employer sanction after 6 1/2 years.

“If employers know its going to expire in 6 1/2 years all they have to do is elude the authorities for a while,” he said. “The INS will still be gearing up to enforce (sanctions) about the time they would expire.”

As legislative conferees began their negotiations Friday, Simpson said he believes the Senate is willing to accept the House farmworker compromise. However, he insisted that adoption of the automatic end of the sanctions would “gut” the reform package by removing its primary mechanism for deterring illegal immigration.

Bob Secter reported from Washington and David Holley reported from Los Angeles. Also contributing to this story was staff writer Eric Malnic in Los Angeles.