Over 800,000 Aliens Seek Amnesty; Arrests Dip 30%

The new federal immigration law is showing “strong, clear results” after less than a year, with the number of illegal aliens apprehended at the border down 30% and more than 800,000 people seeking amnesty under the new regulations, Director Alan C. Nelson of the Immigration and Naturalization Service said Thursday.

Southern California is leading the United States in the number of amnesty applications, having 14 of the nation’s 20 busiest immigration offices, including Hollywood and East Los Angeles, plus centers in the San Fernando Valley and Orange County, INS officials said.

Nelson, speaking at a press briefing, also announced a major change in the agency’s amnesty program that could extend protection to an additional 100,000 aliens. It would apply to some aliens who were living here illegally, left the country during the law’s specified eligibility period, and then returned.

“What we’ve seen from the first 11 months of the new program is that people know about this law, and that knowledge about it is growing,” Nelson said. “In a very short time, we’ve found that overall compliance across the country has been quite good.”

Under the new immigration law, which was approved last November, aliens can apply for legal residence as part of a 12-month amnesty program that ends May 4, 1988. The government is required to grant residence to those who can document that they have lived continuously in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982.

The law also cracks down on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. In the last few months, Nelson said, federal officials have issued more than 100 warning citations to employers who employ aliens, and are readying “a considerable number” of fines for businesses that hired them after receiving official warnings.

Last week, the INS announced the first two such fines under the new law, a $6,000 penalty against an El Cajon water bed company and a $16,500 fine against an Arlington, Va., hotel. The Virginia firm received the stiffer penalty, Nelson said, because it had violated more provisions of the immigration law than the California company.

‘Strong Warning’ of Law

Given the “strong warning” sent out by the new law, the 30% decline in border apprehensions shows that aliens now realize they will have a difficult time finding work in the United States, Nelson said. Federal officials said that based on the current rate of arrests, they expect 1,077,000 by the end of the year. That contrasts with 1,476,395 in 1986.

Meanwhile, INS data shows that 813,647 aliens have applied for amnesty since the application period began last May. If present trends continue, Nelson said, the agency will be “well on the way” to meeting its goal of more than 2 million applications by next May.

Nationwide, the Western states--and Southern California in particular--show the greatest number of legal residency requests. More than half of the national total has come from the region in the last six months. By contrast, the Eastern states have reported only 64,185 applications. Nelson said more outreach programs will be needed there to bring up the totals.

As of Sept. 30, the Hollywood and East Los Angeles INS offices led the nation with 38,547 and 34,318 applications, respectively.

Other California immigration offices reporting large numbers of applications include Huntington Park, El Monte, Gardena, North Hollywood, San Fernando, Pomona, Bellflower, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Buena Park, Riverside, San Diego and Fresno.

Nearly 85% of the nation’s amnesty applications have been received at INS offices, which suggests that aliens are less distrustful of immigration officials than was originally thought, Nelson said. Federal agencies will continue to encourage church organizations and other community outreach groups to process applications as well, he added.

In announcing the revision of one amnesty regulation, Nelson said the law will now cover people who were residing illegally in the United States as of Jan. 1, 1982, left the country and then returned, using documents obtained at overseas consulates to fraudulently secure visas.

INS officials decided that aliens in that category should be able to claim an “unrelinquished” residence and thus “should not be excluded from the program,” Nelson said.

Because those aliens got back into the country “through a fraudulent act,” Nelson continued, they will be required to pay a special $35 fee besides meeting all the immigration requirements that apply to other applicants.

An example of such a case, he said, involved a Latino family in Los Angeles that had lived illegally in the United States since 1977. The wife returned to Mexico for a family emergency and obtained a visitor’s visa to re-enter the United States after Jan. 1, 1982, Nelson added.

In Los Angeles, an attorney who filed suit against the INS for dragging its feet on the visitor’s visa issue said he wants to see how the agency deals with immigrants affected by the changes before he decides whether to drop the action.

Peter Schey, director of the National Center for Immigrants’ Rights Inc., had filed suit against the INS in July in an effort to force the agency to change its policy on visitor’s visas. A hearing has been set in federal court in Los Angeles for Oct. 26.

“It’s unfortunate that this comes almost halfway through the legalization period and only when the INS was looking down the barrel at our Oct. 26 court date,” Schey said. He and other immigrant activists said the agency’s delay gives weight to calls for extending the amnesty period after May, 1988.