Skepticism Persists Among Aliens on Eve of Amnesty Law : Many Wary as INS Readies Processing Offices With a Smile

It would appear that Maria Cardenas and her three children will encounter little trouble in their applications for amnesty under the new immigration law.

The Lakeside family has a three-inch-thick stack of rent receipts, school records and other documents demonstrating that they have lived continuosly in the United States since before 1982, the cutoff date for amnesty. And, unlike many illegal aliens from Mexico, Maria Cardenas says she has not returned to Mexico since 1982, thus maintaining the continuous U.S. residence necessary under the law.

Her case is so strong that, on Wednesday, officials of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service used her family as their example in walking an applicant through the amnesty process at the INS’s new amnesty office in Mission Village.

But many in the audience at the INS-sponsored event noted that the Cardenas family and their excellent documentation are atypical.

Called Exception

“In every regard, they’re the exception,” noted Marco Antonio Rodriguez, executive director of Centro de Asuntos Migratorios, a Chula Vista-based nonprofit agency that works with illegal aliens throughout the area.

Rodriguez’s skepticism reflects the widespread uncertainty surrounding many aspects of the INS’s much-talked-about amnesty program, which begins Tuesday. The agency’s new San Diego office, where the INS held an open house Wednesday, will be the central point in San Diego for the processing of applications for amnesty, or legalization, filed under the new immigration law.

From this unassuming one-story structure at 3247 Mission Village Drive, government workers will render decisions that are crucial to the futures of thousands--perhaps tens of thousands--of San Diego County residents. At stake is whether the illegal aliens of today will be able to shed their underground existences and claim the rights and protections of legal residents, or whether they will have to maintain their constant fear of apprehension and separation from their families.

In North County, an INS legalization office at 463 Midway Drive in Escondido will also begin accepting applications Tuesday.

“The environment is going to be one of openness, one of welcome,” vowed INS regional commissioner Harold Ezell, who was host of the opening ceremonies at the brightly lit offices, still smelling of fresh paint and newly cut carpet.

“We’re looking for ways to say yes” to applicants, Ezell added.

Nonetheless, with only five days left until the INS begins accepting amnesty applications, many clearly remain unconvinced about the credibility of an agency that is best known to illegal aliens for its deportations and immigration roundups in factories, fields and on the streets. In the illegal alien community, knowledgeable observers say, there is widespread skepticism about the agency’s motives, as well as considerable reluctance to voluntarily approach an INS office in order to file any kind of application.

Image of Enforcement

“The INS has an image as an enforcement agency,” noted the Rev. Douglas Regin, executive director in San Diego of Catholic Community Services, which is assisting illegal aliens seeking amnesty. “It’s very difficult to suddenly shed that image.”

Apart from the agency’s image as an enemy of illegal aliens, officials acknowledge that the INS also has a reputation as a bumbling, slow-moving bureaucracy that rarely takes to anything quickly. (Some prospective legal immigrants face current waiting lists of 10 years or more.) Indeed, the crucial final regulations governing the program have yet to be released, and questions remain unanswered about the implementation of the amnesty effort.

“I don’t think they (the INS) can overcome their sordid history of racism and their inherent administrative incompetency,” said Herman Baca, chairman of the Committee on Chicano Rights, a National City-based group that has asked Congress to create another agency to administer the amnesty program.

But this time the INS will be ready, Ezell promised Wednesday.

“This is the best chance that the immigration service has ever had to change the Rodney Dangerfield image that we’ve had in certain circles,” Ezell said.

On Wednesday, the INS continued its efforts to change that image in the ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new San Diego legalization office, where a banner contained the motto: “We Serve With Courtesy and Pride.”

The 15,000-square-foot facility on Mission Village Drive is capable of handling 250 applications a day, officials said. The Escondido office is designed to process 150 per day.

100,000 Believed in County

However, James Turnage, INS district director in San Diego, acknowledged that the offices will only be operating at half that capacity or less for the “first few days” until workers become accustomed to the process. Officials estimate that there are as many as 100,000 illegal aliens in San Diego County, and they are preparing for about half of them to apply for amnesty. The INS has created 45 new positions, to be filled by new hires and transfers, to man the two offices in San Diego County.

Because of the expected heavy volume of applications, Turnage said, the offices will not be able to accommodate “walk-in” applicants. Instead, amnesty-seekers will be asked to drop off their applications or mail them to the new legalization post office boxes.

All persons seeking amnesty must complete a four-page application form that amounts to a kind of history of the applicant’s time in the United States. Initially, illegal aliens will also be asked to supply a summary of the documents in their possession, such as rent receipts and school records, demonstrating that they have resided continuously in the United States since 1982. Applicants must also submit a set of fingerprints and a form from a doctor attesting that they have received a medical examination and been tested for various contagious diseases. The fee is $185 per adult, up to a maximum of $420 per family.

Farm Worker Provision

Besides those who have lived in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982, the new law also provides amnesty for agricultural workers who did at least 90 days of farm work in the United States during the one-year period that ended last May 1. The application period for farm workers begins on June 1.

Once they have submitted these forms and paid their fees, illegal aliens whose applications pass an initial screening will be sent a letter containing a receipt, a work authorization document--allowing them to work in the United States--and an appointment with an INS examiner. All applicants will be interviewed; they will be required to bring documents showing residency to the interview.

If the application process is successful, applicants will receive permission to remain in the United States for 18 months. Thereafter, illegal aliens can apply for permanent residency status.

INS officials here acknowledged that there have already been some glitches in the process. For instance, rented furniture is being used at the San Diego office because the delivery of the permanent furniture has been delayed until June. And immigration lawyers and others have complained of a shortage of some legalization forms.

But officials dismiss such delays as minor.

“I think we’re on target, we’re on track,” said Art Shanks, who, as deputy district director for immigration reform in San Diego, will oversee the amnesty program. “On Tuesday morning, we’ll be ready to go. In fact, we’re just about ready to go now.”

For now, officials of the many independent agencies working with the INS appear inclined to take the agency at its word.

“I’m willing to assume that their efforts are in good faith,” said Carol Hallstrom, coordinator of the San Diego Immigration Law Coalition, a group of nonprofit community organizations that have banded together in an effort to assist illegal aliens seeking amnesty.

Confusion Remains

However, Hallstrom, like others, noted that there still appears to be widespread confusion about both key aspects of the new immigration law--amnesty and the new legal sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens--despite the INS’s much-ballyhoed efforts to get the word out about the law.

“We get calls on a regular basis from employers and employees who do not know what is expected of them,” Hallstrom said.

The word has certainly gotten out to Maria Cardenas, the mother of three who was walked through the process by the INS on Wednesday.

“Amnesty is the best thing that could happen to my family,” said Cardenas, who came to the United States illegally from a small village in Mexico in 1978 and has reared her three Mexican-born children by working as a housekeeper. “I want my children to get an education and have the chances that I never had.”

For others, though, such as those who arrived in the United States after 1982, the amnesty program is one more of disappointment.

“Even though they have roots in the United States, they don’t qualify, just because they arrived after 1982,” said Rodriguez of Centro de Asuntos Migratorios. “I think that’s totally arbitrary.”