Illegal Aliens Fear for the Handicapped : Parents Say Their Disabled Children Could Be Ousted Under Law

Rosa Moreno, a 15-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador who came to the United States six years ago, says that her father, mother and brother all should easily qualify for amnesty under the new immigration law.

But Rosa, 15, is crippled from polio. And according to standard immigration health requirements, which are to be applied to illegal aliens applying for amnesty under the new law, aliens with disabilities that “may affect” their ability to earn a living are excludable from the United States.

Just how these provisions will be applied is not entirely clear. But Rosa and her family fear the worst.

“They are saying that the handicapped people are not going to stay in this country, because they are handicapped,” Rosa said at a Los Angeles press conference called to draw attention to the concerns of families such as hers. “I think that’s not fair, because we are all human and we feel the same thing.”

If Rosa does not qualify, “we would all have to leave,” said her father, Tony Moreno, 46, a restaurant employee who said he left El Salvador in 1980 “because of the war.”

“This law is inhumane, unfair, and if applied as it is, would create the division of families,” said Jorge Acosta, a spokesman for Padres Hispanos Incapacitados Unidos Lanterman, which organized the press conference. “We want that law to be changed.”

Acosta said his organization has 21 regional centers throughout the state that serve thousands of Latino families with handicapped children.

In a formal statement, the parents’ organization pointed out that under longstanding immigration law, applicants with mental or physical disabilities may be denied approval to immigrate to the United States. Applying this standard to children who are amnesty applicants would “terribly and irreparably” affect thousands of handicapped children, according to the statement.

The parents appealed to President Reagan and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service “to find a humane solution . . . based on the principles promulgated by the United Nations in its Bill of Rights for the Handicapped Child.”

Antonio Rodriguez, director of the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice and an adviser to the parents’ organization, said it is possible that because Rosa will be employable as an adult, she might not be considered medically excludable for purposes of amnesty. But “there is a well-founded fear” that she may be excluded, he said.

The family of Epigmenio Casas is even more worried.

Casas, 66, said he and his wife should have no trouble qualifying for amnesty, but that their 23-year-old daughter has been evaluated as having “the mental age of a 7-year-old child.” The retired shoe factory worker, who came to the United States in 1971 and lives in Los Angeles, said he will do everything he can to keep the family together.

“She loves us a lot,” Casas said, “and she would be heartbroken if the family were separated.”

In immigration cases, waivers are usually granted to disabled family members if the family is “capable of supporting that individual for the immediate future,” according to Peter Gordon, an examinations specialist in the INS western regional office. Waivers are expected to be available on the same basis for amnesty applicants, he said.