New Procedures to Ease Crowds : INS Draws the Line at Busy Downtown Office

Image-conscious officials at the Immigration and Naturalization Service have finally decided to do something about a decade-old problem that has plagued Room 1001 at the agency’s downtown Los Angeles offices:

The long lines.

Nightly, the scene is always the same. Applicants for citizenship or a “green card” come as early as 10 o’clock--armed with sleeping bags, blankets, lawn chairs or a TV or two--to line up outside the INS office at the Federal Building on Los Angeles Street so that they will get prompt attention when the doors swing open for business at 7 a.m. As many as 1,200 go through the INS office each day on a first-come, first-served basis.

So many are in line there before dawn that most of those people who come as late as 8 a.m. are chagrined and outraged when they discover that all of the day’s interview slots for certain INS services have already been filled and the offices close at 4 p.m., before they get off of work.

‘I Thought People Were Crazy’

“I got here this morning at 4,” said Guillermo Luna of Pasadena, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was petitioning for his parents’ entry from their native Mexico. “I’ve been here three times before but the lines were always too long when I got here. I thought people were crazy to come in the middle of the night. But here I am.”

The crush of people at Room 1001--continuing evidence that Los Angeles is the new “Ellis Island”--has presented problems for the INS, which has been roundly criticized by Latino activists and described by Democratic Rep. Edward Roybal of Los Angeles as the “most discourteous department in the federal bureaucracy.”

Federal authorities in recent weeks have arrested people who charged up to $50 for their place in line. One woman, thinking she had paid an immigration officer $25 for a good spot in line, had to be removed from the office when she learned that she had, in fact, been duped and could not see an INS clerk that day.

“I paid my money,” the woman told authorities. “I ought to get some service.”

INS officials reported some assaults in which numbered tickets passed out to those in line--ensuring an interview with an INS clerk--have been snatched and then sold to people willing to pay $50 to $100 for the tickets to avoid getting up early.

Fearful that the situation may worsen, INS officials said they will try some new procedures in an attempt to discourage the long, early morning lines.

Beginning Dec. 1, the INS will begin to accept appointments, initially made in person, for people having business at the downtown office.

Shirley Hickman, Room 1001’s supervisor, said the appointments system at the office will operate six days a week, including Saturdays, to take applications for replacing lost alien residency cards, becoming a U.S. citizen and changing residency status. Now, the INS office is closed Saturdays.

Dismal Results

Immigration officials are mindful that a similar appointment system employed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles met with mostly dismal results. But the INS is willing to experiment in order to deflect some of the criticism hurled its way.

“Most INS business can be handled in seven to 10 minutes and we think we can process a lot with this system,” Hickman said.

“There really isn’t a need to get in line early. Under this (system), if there are no tickets when they get here, they can make an appointment. We’re just trying to give the people an option.”

Another option, officials say, is to go to other INS offices, including the one in Santa Ana where the lines are not as long.

After Jan. 1, officials said, special INS telephone lines will be installed to help ease the making of appointments.

Longer Hours Considered

Immigration officials are also looking at the possibility of extending office hours beyond the 4 p.m. closing time, to 6 p.m.

But they said they are limited in what innovations they can implement because of the limited staff in the downtown INS office. Thirty INS executives and clerks work in the facility.

For example, one measure not under consideration is the opening of the office on Saturday to people without appointments.

“In view of Gramm-Rudman and other cost-cutting measures, there’s only so much we can do,” said Steve Hlavety, an INS regional program manager.

The long lines date back to the mid-1970s, when thousands of immigrants began to besiege the INS office.

Silva Letters

At the time, these illegals sought documents, called Silva letters, that made them temporarily immune to deportation. The letters were drawn from a Chicago federal court case in which Refugio Silva, an immigrant from Mexico, won a ruling that held that the government had improperly granted thousands of immigrant visas to Cubans at the expense of other Western Hemisphere applicants.

Since then, Room 1001 has been the scene of growing crowds. The massive naturalization ceremonies recently have spawned a wave of petitions by these new citizens to bring immediate family members into the United States.

‘I’d Quit’

INS officials shudder at the thought of what life at Room 1001 might be if it also had to process applications for amnesty under the new immigration reform law. “Oh, God,” one Room 1001 clerk said. “I’d quit. If people don’t hate us now, look out.”

INS officials plan to set up separate offices throughout Southern California to handle amnesty applications.

Hickman and other INS officials, sensitive about the criticism leveled at the agency, insist that the operation at Room 1001 gets a bum rap, many times from complainers who are denied interviews.

“If they get a ticket for an interview, we’re wonderful. The people love us,” Hickman said. “But the minute the tickets are gone, they say we’re rude, insensitive, discourteous.”