INS and IRS Dispute May Delay Amnesty

Two weeks before hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens begin applying for legal U.S. residency under the new immigration law, a dispute between federal agencies is threatening to impede the amnesty process.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Internal Revenue Service remain at odds, according to officials of both agencies, over what kind of tax documents the IRS will routinely provide to those seeking to qualify for the amnesty by establishing their continuous residence in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982. This is the most serious of many questions raised over what documents applicants will be submitting.

In the background, exacerbating the dispute, is a conflict of laws. On the one hand, a provision of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 says no alien will be granted permanent residency unless he has paid his taxes, if any were due, for the previous three years. On the other hand, a provision in last year’s sweeping immigration law says that documents and proceedings in the amnesty process will be kept strictly confidential by the INS.

The INS is not requiring applicants to prove that they have paid taxes, although any tax records they have will help to establish that they were in the country for the required period of five years.

Duke Austin, chief INS spokesman in Washington, told The Times that IRS officials have refused to come to terms on the documents issue until they receive assurances they will be able to implement the tax law.

New Law an Option

“We haven’t resolved any of these issues right now,” Austin said. One option would be action by Congress to write a new law to resolve the conflict.

INS officials charged with managing the amnesty processing centers are not inclined to be yielding. “Our law says confidentiality is complete,” said William S. King Jr., who is responsible for the centers in the Los Angeles district, where as many as three-quarters of the applications are expected. “It’s absolute. No information is going to be provided the IRS or anyone else.”

Under the amnesty program, permanent residency status is at least a year and a half away, so there is apparently time to deal with the conflict of laws, although federal authorities have been aware of it for months without doing so.

But the initial amnesty applications--leading, if approved, to 18 months of legal temporary residency--will be accepted by the INS beginning May 5, and most of those close to the situation believe that questions over documents must be resolved now to minimize confusion. The INS is expected to promulgate its final rules for handling the amnesty process by the end of the month.

Interviews last week with immigrants’ rights groups, others counseling aliens and INS officials show that uncertainty over what kind of documents should be included in applications remains widespread, and nowhere is the problem more apparent than with tax returns.

Returns ‘Good as Gold’

In their advisories to potential applicants, INS officials have been saying certified copies of tax returns “are as good as gold” in proving past residency. While no specific document is required to be included in applicants’ files, this, they say, is one of the best.

But several IRS spokesmen said the agency wishes, instead, to provide aliens requesting tax documents nothing more than a “transcript of account,” a statement that a tax return was received on a particular date. And, the spokesmen indicated, the IRS’s preference is to issue only a “fact of filing certification,” a document that is even easier to provide.

If there is a surge of requests for certified copies of past tax returns, “it could take us six months or longer to get them out,” said Rod Young, an IRS spokesman in Washington. He noted also there is a $4.25 charge for each year’s copy, while the transcripts or facts of filing certifications are free.

As the beginning date for filing the amnesty applications approaches, fears have been expressed by a number of immigrants’ rights advocates that the need for multiple documents to establish the aliens’ identity and past U.S. residency record will bring chaos to the legalization process.

They envision a rush not only to the IRS but also to school districts, utilities, banks, the courts and employers for a variety of papers that may prove exceedingly difficult and time-consuming for them to produce. In turn, they predict, this will delay the filing of many applications well into the year-long period set aside for filing.

‘At Least Two Requests’

Just on tax returns, said Ted McCabe, an official of Catholic Charities in Orange County, “the maximum you can request at one time is for four years, so establishing a five-year record would entail at least two requests to the IRS. Statewide, if everyone applied, that would be 2 or 3 million requests.”

Linda Wong, associate counsel in the Los Angeles office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said: “It’s clearly going to be a major obstacle for many applicants to obtain the kind of documentation INS is requesting. . . . It’s going to create a tremendous backlog. Those agencies and institutions that have those kinds of records will be hard-pressed.”

INS officials, however, doubt that there will be too great a rush for any single kind of document.

Speaking for the agency, Austin declared: “To my knowledge, there’s no single required document for legalization. There’s only documentation required to establish that you meet the eligibility requirements of the law. Nothing specific is required. Obviously, tax returns would establish your residency, utility bills, rent receipts, bank statements. . . . The law is not exclusive. There are recommended documents but not required documents. No one is required to produce a tax return.”

INS officials express pride in this system because they say that if someone finds it impossible to find or provide one document, he can seek alternatives. He isn’t frozen out because any one piece of paper is lacking.

‘Don’t Say What’s Essential’

But immigrants’ rights advocates often view it differently.

“They don’t say what’s essential,” commented Gilbert Carrasco of the U.S. Catholic Conference in Washington. The Catholic Church has already pre-registered more than 300,000 applicants in the Los Angeles area alone.

“They don’t say if you have any one document you establish your proof, and they don’t say that any evidence submitted is going to be given consideration or appropriate weight or anything along these lines,” Carrasco said.

Charles Wheeler, director of the National Center for Immigrants’ Rights, added: “The major difficulty with the documentation now is that INS is requesting too many documents and it’s not clear what specific types might be required. . . . There are an almost limitless amount of documents people might submit. . . . No one knows exactly how many documents are sufficient. . . . They’re saying, ‘Don’t send them in by the carload,’ but they’re not saying what’s too many.

“As a prudent attorney, you’re going to tell your client that he should gather everything possible,” he concluded. “Why hold back?”

‘Looking for Paper Trail’

The INS’s King, however, said this would be a mistake. In the initial filing, he said, the applicant should “ideally send us only that necessary to establish that he or she has been here during the requisite period. An unexpired passport with an entry date prior to 1982, an employment record, a tax return, rent receipts, bank books, that kind of thing. . . . We’re looking for a paper trail.”

Then, he said, when a personal interview is scheduled in two to three months, the applicant can bring in anything else he has to support his case and fill up any time gaps that may exist in what he sent in initially.

Aside from the unresolved issue relating to tax records, many of the issues relating to documents either have been resolved or are nearing resolution, according to a series of interviews:

- The INS has agreed in meetings with Los Angeles and Orange County school officials on an acceptable form for providing records of school enrollment. Contrary to some earlier speculation, specific attendance records will not be required. The Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, is putting out a circular to individual schools this week providing sample forms and explaining the procedure for turning over enrollment records free of charge to those who apply for them in person. Already, school officials report, the district is receiving hundreds of requests a day.

- Utilities have been conferring among themselves on a form letter that would certify that a utility had provided service to an amnesty applicant during a particular period. Pacific Bell spokeswoman Charlene Baldwin said the utility expects to announce plans along these lines this week.

- The INS has increased the numbers of doctors--from 10 to 92 in the Los Angeles district--it has approved to perform brief medical examinations that applicants are required to have before their scheduled interviews, according to Ernest Gustafson, the agency’s district director. Officials are prepared to approve more if more turn out to be needed. Gustafson also said last week that, contrary to past indications, he is willing to approve volunteer doctors to do the examination, if they otherwise qualify.

- Employers are being publicly reassured in a public education campaign that letters they supply certifying past work periods for amnesty applicants will not be passed on to taxing authorities. King reiterated last week that a householder, for example, who has been employing an illegal alien but not withholding taxes from his wages or paying Social Security, can provide such a letter for an amnesty application without fear of subjecting himself to possible prosecution.

Nonetheless, the whole issue of documentation is proving to be one more source of contention spawned by the landmark law.

The way the regulations regarding documentation have been set up worries longtime immigrants’ rights advocates such as Wong, of MALDEF, who says: “The INS position leaves them absolute discretion to do anything. The applicants are left in a twilight zone of uncertainty.”

But the INS’s King responds, “We’ve said time and again we are looking for ways to approve these applications, not to disapprove them.”