Aliens Encounter Snags in Seeking Residency

Upon learning that a provision in the new immigration reform law allows illegal aliens who have lived in the United States since 1972 to immediately apply for legal residency, Javier Solis filled out the necessary forms and arrived at the downtown Immigration and Naturalization Service offices before sunrise one cold recent morning.

He waited in line for eight hours to file his application and, afraid of losing his place, did not even take a lunch break. The inconvenience did not matter, he said.

For Solis (not his real name) and his wife, the new law holds the promise of allowing the couple, separated from their family and friends in Mexico since they came here 18 years ago, to return for a visit to their hometown, Guadalajara. It would also cut down on their long-distance phone bills, which some months have run as high as $200, he said.

Solis, 37, who has worked at the same kitchen appliance manufacturing firm for 15 years, had done his homework. He read everything he could get his hands on about the new law. He even went to the downtown county Law Library to make a copy of the new legislation.

But his diligence was of little value. When Solis, a copy of the new law in hand, reached the head of the line, he was turned away.

“They told me they didn’t know anything about this,” he said. “And they wouldn’t even listen.”

Solis said he has received the same response from the INS on about 10 other occasions since then.

For Solis and others who have sought to take advantage of the law’s special provision--especially since reading newspaper reports of a recent daylong INS conference, during which officials specified this immediate opportunity--the frustrating experience has merely increased their confusion and mistrust of the INS.

“They (INS officials) are contradicting themselves, as they have always done,” Solis said. “They say one thing at their meetings, then you go down to try to follow up and they tell you just the opposite.”

Los Angeles INS District Director Ernest Gustafson, who pointed out at the recent conference that such aliens could immediately apply for legalization, said this week that the policy still stands. In fact, a directive to that effect was sent to all INS field offices from Washington headquarters almost a month ago.

Admitting that he was not aware that members of his staff were rejecting such applications, Gustafson said he planned to “properly advise all our employees . . . .”

Part of the confusion lies in the fact that new forms for the applications covered by the law have not yet arrived from Washington, Gustafson said. He pointed out that the legislation’s special provision merely updates--to Jan. 1, 1972--the long-standing “registry date” for the legalization of aliens who have resided in the United States since 1948.

In an attempt to expedite the process, Gustafson said he decided to use the existing “I-485 and accompanying forms” used for 1948 applicants, by merely having applicants write in the new 1972 date.

Gustafson added that the forms are available in Room 1000 of the INS offices at the downtown Federal Building. The completed applications can be mailed in, he said.

Applicants under the 1972 provision need not be concerned over eligibility requirements in the new law for the larger category of aliens who have lived continuously in the United States since at least 1982, INS district counsel Elizabeth A. Hacker said.

Requirements for 1982 applicants--such as proof that they will not become a public charge or that their visas expired before the cutoff date--do not apply to the 1972 applicants, Hacker said. Applicants must only show that they have lived continuously in the United States since before 1972, that they have committed no serious crimes and are “of good moral character,” she said.

Some immigration lawyers, nevertheless, caution immigrants to seek legal advice before applying.

“If they are held not to qualify (for legalization by the INS), in all likelihood, they will find themselves in deportation proceedings,” said Peter Schey of the National Center for Immigrants’ Rights Inc.

Javier Solis may be discouraged, but he remains optimistic. Confident that he and his wife will qualify under the 1972 provision--”I have all my tax receipts since 1971, and I’ve never been in trouble with the law”--Solis said he will keep trying to apply.

The only snag so far is his wife’s ability to prove continuous residence since 1972. Her first employer, an attorney she worked for as a baby sitter, has been uncooperative about providing her with a written statement verifying her employment, Solis said.

Solis’ main concern, he said, is that he may be forced to hire an attorney. One lawyer quoted a $2,000 fee, he said.

Schey and other immigrants’ rights advocates have cautioned aliens to be leery of lawyers who demand high fees for filling out forms. They urge that potential applicants instead seek prescreening services from such nonprofit groups as church, union and social service agencies.