Amnesty Sign-Up Surges but Still Trails Forecast

A sudden surge in the number of illegal aliens applying for amnesty under the new immigration law has struck an encouraging note for immigration officials who saw their program get off to a slow start on May 5. But officials concede that the numbers still remain lower than anticipated.

Application filings at legalization centers in the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Western Region jumped by about 36%, to 3,265, on June 3 and the daily increase is holding, Dona Coultice, associate regional director for legalization, said Thursday.

At the INS legalization center in Buena Park, 113 applications for amnesty were filed on Thursday, compared to 75 on Thursday of last week, office director Ed Egan said.

“There’s been a steady, daily increase, but it’s nothing phenomenal,” Egan said. “We’ve expected it.”

The office is staffed to interview as many as 150 applicants in one day, far more than the 63 interviews employees there conducted Thursday. “We expect it to continue to pick up,” Egan said.

Coultice, however, described the districtwide increase in filings as “an incredible leap.” She attributes the jump to growing confidence in the program on the part of immigrants. Those who can show they have lived continuously in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982, are eligible for legalization.

Coultice noted that of a total of about 23,600 immigrants who have been interviewed in the region since the legalization program began, only about 389 have been recommended for denial.

‘Not Getting Arrested’

“More and more people are seeing that applicants are getting approved, that they’re not getting arrested, that this is not a sting operation, and they are becoming more confident about filing applications,” she said. “People are finally getting to understand that INS is serious about this program.”

In an effort to further accommodate potential applicants, office hours at most of the region’s 15 INS legalization centers will be extended to 6 or 7 p.m., and offices will remain open for half a day on Saturdays, starting next week, Coultice said.

But Linda Wong of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, one of the INS’s strongest critics, said she “would not jump for joy” at the agency’s recent figures. “What we’re seeing right now just doesn’t measure well against the expectations,” she said.

Since the legalization program began on May 5, the Western Region--covering California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam--has received more than 44,400 applications, about 47% of the national total of about 94,000. The Los Angeles district, which includes Orange County, accounts for more than two-thirds of the applications received in the Western Region.

The Western Region, which is not yet operating at full capacity, is ahead of the other three regions in the country, Coultice said, admitting that the current filing rate does not bode well for reaching the agency’s national projection of attracting 3.9 million people to the program.

Fears Program Will Fail

Wong and other critics maintain that the complexity of amnesty program regulations and a continued mistrust of INS by immigrants are among factors that will continue to keep the numbers low.

“My ultimate fear is that we’re not going to be any better off one year from now (when the program expires), than we are now . . . that we’re not going to reduce the underground population significantly through this program,” she said. “I hope I’m wrong.”

Coultice, meanwhile, said she is thankful for the program’s slow start because it has given the agency “a chance to key up . . . because when it hits it will hit strong and we’ll have to be ready to run with it.”

She said that another reason filings are low at INS offices is that voluntary agencies, officially designated by the INS to help immigrants fill out amnesty applications, have not yet sent in the completed forms. For instance, she said, INS has received no more than 100 completed applications so far from Catholic Charities, the largest single private agency in the region, which has registered more than 300,000 potential applicants.

Coultice and Wong said they expect another surge in application filings before Sept. 1, the expiration date for the so-called employee self-certification period that allows workers to remain legally employed by merely stating in writing to their employer that they intend to apply for amnesty. After that date, employers will be required to ask workers for proof of legal residency or work authorization.

Times Staff Writer Bob Schwartz contributed to this article.