Groups in L.A. Ready to Assist Aliens Listed

By DAVID HOLLEY

April 24, 1987 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials have released a list of voluntary organizations in the Los Angeles area that the agency is prepared to approve to help illegal aliens apply for amnesty.

This “is the equivalent of the INS stamp of approval that the organization is reputable and will offer applicants bona fide advice at a nominal fee,” Western Regional INS Commissioner Harold W. Ezell said.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. April 25, 1987 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday April 25, 1987 Home Edition Part 1 Page 3 Column 1 Metro Desk 2 inches; 47 words Type of Material: Correction
The International Ladies Garment Workers Union, listed in The Times on Friday as a site for amnesty assistance, is running its program only for members of the union and their families, a union official said. Assistance is not available at that location for other people wishing to apply for legalization under the new immigration law.

Spokesmen for several of the agencies, however, said they are uncertain whether they will have the necessary funding to be able to help process applications, while others said they have decided not to sign formal agreements with the INS.

Lavinia Limon, executive director of the International Institute of Los Angeles, which was among the groups listed, said that although her organization applied for status as a “Qualified Designated Entity,” it has decided not to sign an agreement with the INS “at this time.”

Disagrees on Terms

Limon explained that her group was not satisfied with several terms in the proposed agreement, and will instead proceed independently to assist applicants. The International Institute expects to assist between 20,000 and 30,000 applicants, she said, and will probably charge an average fee of about $200 for its services--more than agencies signing agreements with the government are allowed to charge.

Elizabeth Kirsnis, associate director of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, the largest of the agencies to sign agreements with the INS, said her organization has already pre-registered about 276,000 probable applicants. The agency will begin next week to call these people in for interviews, she said.

Raoul Aroz, an official in the legal department of Catholic Charities, said that with about a dozen sites in operation next week, and about five people conducting interviews at each site, Catholic Charities will be able to process no more than a few thousand applications before May 5, the day the INS starts processing the applications.

“You can safely say there is not going to be a Mack truck backing up to the INS” to deliver applications that day, Aroz said.

AMNESTY ASSISTANCE SITES These agencies will be operating under cooperative agreements with the INS to process amnesty applications:

Church of the Messiah, 614 Bush, Santa Ana 92701

Center for Employment Training, 1265 W. McCoy Drive, Santa Maria 93454

Catholic Charities, 1400 West Ninth Street, L.A. 90015-00 95 213/251-3442

Center for Employment Training, 718 South “A” St., Oxnard 93030

Center for Employment Training, 9237 Narnia Dr., Riverside 92503

Catholic Charities, 1450 N.D. Street, San Bernardino 92405 714/88 9-8351

St. Simon Episcopal Church, 623 Hagar, San Fernando 91340

Center for Employment Training, 2947 East 44th St., L.A. 90058 213/582-9789

L.A. County Bar Assn., 300 N. Los Angeles Street, Room 4349, L.A. 90012 213/485-1872

SER-JOBS For Progress, 548 South Spring St., Suite 330, L.A. 90013 213/622-6444