Amnesty Closed; Further Easing of Rules Studied

The final batch of amnesty applications--those filed with community agencies that were allowed an additional 60 days from the May 4 amnesty deadline to process them--were turned in to immigration offices Tuesday, as officials declared the one-year program officially closed.

Western Region Immigration and Naturalization Service officials at a press conference also announced that they have submitted several proposals to INS headquarters to ease educational requirements that pose a second hurdle for applicants seeking permanent legal status.

More than 1 million immigrants have applied for amnesty in the four-state Western region--more than half the national total of 1.7 million, said Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell. An additional 400,000 agricultural workers in the region have filed under a special program that ends Nov. 30.

Community agencies were expected to deliver about 7,000 applications to INS offices Tuesday.

The agencies, which assisted immigrants in preparing their applications and proving they have lived in the United States since at least 1982, were granted the extra time to process applications turned in during the final rush that preceded the May 4 deadline.

Ezell called the end of the amnesty program “a historic moment in what has been a successful and humanitarian effort to bring qualified aliens out of the shadow world to eventually claim all benefits accorded American citizens.”

Successful applicants have gained temporary resident status and must next take an English and civics test, or complete a 60-hour course in those subjects, to gain permanent status.

Ezell said that the region’s proposals for easing these educational requirements are necessary to provide applicants a “realistic” opportunity to qualify. He said there are simply not enough educational facilities to provide the required English and civics lessons to more than 1 million people in the Western region.

“No way can the Los Angeles Unified School District handle the numbers,” he said.

Under the region’s proposals, applicants would be exempt from taking English and civics exams if they have, at any time, completed one year of study that has included English and civics; if they have already satisfactorily completed 60 hours of schooling in a recognized course of study, or if they are pursuing such a course and have completed at least 30 hours of study.