INS Says It Has Caught Up With Backlog of Work Authorizations

The Immigration and Naturalization Service told a federal judge Tuesday that it has virtually eliminated the backlog for immigrants seeking permission to work in the United States, pending resolution of their petitions for political asylum.

In a declaration presented to U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima, the INS said it processed 7,999 work authorizations between Aug. 19 and Aug. 29 and has no asylum applications that have been pending for longer than 60 days for which no work authorization has been issued.

The report came in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by a coalition of immigrants’ rights groups claiming that some asylum applicants were having to wait as long as eight months for work authorizations, despite federal regulations that state that such applications must be acted on within 60 days.

“This is a significant victory, and it has been accomplished because of this lawsuit,” said Vibiana Andrade of the National Center for Immigrants Rights Inc., which filed suit along with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the Central American Refugee Center, the National Lawyers Guild and San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services.

In their suit, the plaintiffs contend that many asylum applicants have lost their jobs or have been unable to find work because of delays in obtaining work authorizations from the INS.

One of the plaintiffs, an immigrant from El Salvador who says he was kidnaped and nearly killed by a government death squad there, claimed that he had lost his job in Los Angeles because he had no work permit.

Another, a Kanjobal Indian who said he had been kidnaped and tortured by the military in his native Guatemala, was attempting to support his wife and five children in Los Angeles but said he feared he would be fired because of the employer-sanctions provisions that took effect with the new amnesty law.

Special Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael C. Johnson said the amnesty deadline in May prompted a large increase in the number of asylum applications because of the mistaken belief that there was also a deadline for asylum applications.

The employer sanctions provision also contributed to the “inundation” at the INS from asylum applicants who needed to display work permits while their applications were pending, Johnson said.

Applications, which had been running at about 450 a month in July of 1987, jumped to 5,762 when the employer sanctions and amnesty deadline took effect, according to court documents.

In the declaration filed by Jane E. Arellano, assistant district director for examinations at the INS in Los Angeles, the agency said both national and regional task forces have been convened to process the large number of pending asylum applications.

Because of the backlog, the Los Angeles district office focused solely on issuing work authorizations, rather than conducting interviews on the merits of asylum applications, from November through June, the INS said.

INS officials said a new plan to alleviate the backlog took effect in Los Angeles on Aug. 19, including the permanent assignment of three full-time employees to the asylum section of the office. The new plan has already eliminated the backlog, the agency said, with no asylum applications outstanding at present for longer than 60 days for which no work authorization has been issued.

But Andrade said that because the INS has no figures on how many applications are pending, it is impossible to tell whether the problem is really over.

Judge Tashima authorized the plaintiffs to conduct further inquiries to determine whether there is any need to issue a preliminary injunction.

The INS, in the meantime, has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that it is moot. Both issues will be considered at a hearing Oct. 31.