Weekly Amnesty Workshops Launched by INS

The beginning of weekly seminars to teach illegal aliens and others how to file amnesty applications was announced Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization officials.

The seminars, which began Thursday at two San Diego County offices and one Imperial County location, should simplify and accelerate the filing of alien legalization applications under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, according to William King, immigration reform director for the western region.

The act provides the possibility of legal status for undocumented immigrants who have lived continuously in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982. Those who have worked in agriculture for at least 90 days during a recent period also are eligible to apply for legal status.

From Arizona to Guam

King said the sessions--which will take place in the 36 legalization offices in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam--will remain open from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. every Thursday until further notice. The workshops will be taught in Spanish and English at the centers by immigration personnel and volunteers.

Turnout at the San Diego County legalization offices has been lighter than expected since legalization processing began May 5. The weekly workshops along with the agency’s increased publicity efforts should increase the number of applicants and place the program on target with its goals, said Art Shanks, deputy district director for immigration reform.

“In San Diego and Imperial counties, we’re probably about 1,000 (applications) short of what we expected to see by now,” he said. “The workshops are going to speed everything up. We started off slowly, but it’s building up now. We got five times more applications in June than we did in May, and were getting five times more applications in July than we did in June.”

7,406 Applications Received

Officials estimate that 100,000 illegal aliens live in San Diego County, half of whom are eligible for amnesty. Locally, only 7,406 applications have been received in the two-month period the program has been in operation, 119 of which were denied recommendation for legal status.

In addition, 6,568 applications were received as Special Agriculture Worker cases, 128 of which were denied, Shanks said.

Since the legalization program began, the INS western region has received 101,170 applications, and 1,248 were denied, Shanks said.

The workshops are intended to assist individual amnesty seekers in filing applications, but public groups and the media are invited to attend the workshops, which will be conducted with videotapes and other visual educational material, King said.

According to Maria Elena Verdugo, legalization coordinator for Catholic Community Services of San Diego, the workshops may not be as helpful as the INS hopes because officials will be unable to provide one-on-one interaction with legalization applicants in a classroom lecture setting.

She said the workshops may be more beneficial to those who attend seeking to learn how to become qualified application processors than to individual applicants.

Immigrants’ rights groups reported earlier that aliens are paying lawyers and independent processors from $500 to $5,000 per application. The INS designated its processing fee as $185 per alien and $420 per family.

1,500 Successful Filings

“We’ve turned in at least 1,500 applications, and not a single one has been denied,” Verdugo said. “We’re dealing with a lot of people who don’t know how to read and write. It takes several hours to explain an application three or four times to an individual, making sure that they understand it.”

Legalization centers that began holding the seminars Thursday are at: 3247 Mission Village Drive, San Diego; 463 N. Midway Drive, Escondido, and 1627 W. Main St., El Centro.