INS Hopes to Forge Trust in Implementing New Alien Law

Maintaining that the landmark new immigration law cannot succeed without the cooperation of employers and community organizations, U.S. officials Wednesday urged participants at the first public conference on the measure to help create an “atmosphere of confidence” among immigrant communities and assist in implementing the law.

Alluding to reports of widespread fear and skepticism over the new law, William King, the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s western regional director for the law, assured participants that “this is not a sting operation.”

“We are genuinely interested in attracting people to step forward and receive the benefits they may qualify for under the law,” he said.

Billed as the kickoff of a national effort to solicit advice from a cross-section of community, labor, employer, lawyer and church organizations, the conference drew about 300 participants. As the area with the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the United States, Los Angeles was picked for the first in a series of similar meetings to be held across the country during December.

Throughout the daylong conference at an airport hotel, INS officials repeatedly encouraged the invited guests to submit their questions and comments in writing on how best to implement the law.

Questions ranged from the location of legalization centers to the type of documents that will be required to prove continuous residence and whether a failure to pay income taxes would make an alien ineligible for amnesty. Because the regulations to answer these questions have not yet been written, the responses from officials were sometimes indefinite or vague.

Even U.S. Rep. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles), who had fought passage of the law, urged community cooperation for a “humane application of the law.” Roybal said that INS officials have so far been receptive to suggestions from an ad hoc coalition of national Latino and immigrants rights groups that the congressman helped establish to monitor implementation of the law.

“There is a clear indication of a willingness from INS to cooperate to make this law work,” he said.

Rep. Daniel Lungren (R-Long Beach), who was instrumental in the bill’s passage, urged those at the conference to use their “credibility in the community to make this law work. We want to bring people out of the shadows,” he said.

But he warned that, while “we want to make this a generous legalization program, we will not countenance fraud.” Several INS officials also warned that anyone using fraudulent information on applications will be dealt with sternly.

Some participants, however, remained skeptical while others expressed disappointment that little new information about the law was offered by INS panelists.

Dorothy Brylski, director of Catholic Immigration and Resettlement Services in Orange County, called the information provided “a rehash of the bill.”

“We just hope that they (INS officials) are sincere” about soliciting community comments, she said, adding that she would withhold judgment.

INS Commissioner Alan Nelson said that the meetings to be held across the country are designed to provide the agency with ideas and recommendations on implementing the law. The agency plans to spend January and February drafting the regulations which, Nelson said, will be published in late February. After publication in the Federal Register, the public will get a chance to comment on them again, he said.

A final draft of the regulations will then be prepared to begin active implementation of the law in May, 1987, he said. At that time, the agency will begin fully enforcing sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens and, for a year beginning next May, applications for amnesty will be accepted at INS legalization offices. Aliens who can prove they have lived in the United States continuously since Jan. 1, 1982, will be eligible for amnesty.

INS officials said they are counting on the cooperation of voluntary community agencies, which will be officially designated by the INS, to prescreen aliens’ applications. The agencies will act as buffers between potential applicants and the agency, traditionally feared in immigrant communities. Agreements with these agencies will be signed sometime in February and March.

Officials noted that, under a special provision in the law, illegal aliens who have resided in the United States since 1972 may submit amnesty applications now at INS offices.

Later meetings will be held in San Diego, San Francisco, Honolulu and Phoenix.