Local News in Brief : Amnesty ‘Fairs’ Planned
Officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese announced Monday that they will hold a series of “fairs” throughout the archdiocese to urge qualified illegal aliens to apply for amnesty under the Immigration Reform Act before the May 4 deadline.
In addition, Archbishop Roger Mahony said the archdiocese will increasingly use the pulpit and church bulletins to publicize the deadline and offer counseling for meeting amnesty requirements.
Ernest Gustafson, director of the INS office in Los Angeles, said the district has accounted for 530,000, or 42%, of the amnesty applications nationwide. The archdiocese, working in conjunction with the INS, has processed more than 26,000 applications.
But the California Department of Finance recently estimated that 800,000 qualified applicants have failed to take advantage of the program.
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