Election Day Offers Inspiration for Amnesty Applicants

The 1980 presidential election meant only one thing to Douglas Coreas, who crossed into the United States illegally on Election Day--enforcement along the border would be light, since many Border Patrol agents would be going to the polls.

But Monday, as Coreas became one of the first immigrants in the United States to gain permanent resident status under the nation’s massive amnesty program, Election Day took on a whole new meaning.

“This time, I’m frustrated because I won’t be able to vote,” said Coreas, 24, who holds a full-time job as a data processor while attending Santa Monica College. “I’ve been following the campaign since the primaries and would really like to vote for President and for a few of the propositions.”

Coreas, whose dream is to be an architect, was among three families in Los Angeles, and several more across the nation, who turned in their temporary residence cards for permanent ones under the second phase of the amnesty program, which began Monday.

Immigration officials anticipate that the vast majority of the more than 1.7 million illegal immigrants who qualified for temporary status under the first phase of the program that ended in May will gain permanent status over the next two years.

Temporary residents must wait 18 months from the day they first applied for amnesty to be eligible for permanent status. They then have one year to apply for permanent residence. If they fail to do so, they will revert to their illegal status.

To qualify for permanent residence, most applicants must pass an English and U.S. history and government test, or have taken at least 40 hours of a 60-hour course in those subjects.

“I’m hoping we’ll have close to a 100% approval rate,” said Ernest Gustafson, director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Los Angeles district, which is responsible for nearly half the country’s amnesty applications.

INS and school officials, who spoke at a Los Angeles press conference that marked the start of the program, said there are plenty of classes available through the Los Angeles Unified School District for those in need of instruction to qualify for permanent residence.

Already more than 100,000 applicants have enrolled at 300 sites in the district, a district spokesman said.

Gustafson added that within the next two weeks, lists of other INS-certified courses by community and private groups will be made available at INS legalization offices. He warned applicants to be wary of being bilked by those offering courses not approved by the INS, since these course will not satisfy the requirements.

Applicants under age 16, or over 65, are exempt from taking the INS English and history exam. Some, like Coreas, who graduated from an American high school, and others who have completed at least one year of instruction in a state-accredited school, are also exempt.

Among the First

Still others, like Rina and Roberto Delgado, a young Salvadoran couple who were also among the first to gain permanent residence in Los Angeles, will do it on their own. The couple, who have learned enough English over the last nine years in the United States to get by, merely picked up exam preparation books at an INS office and spent several days cramming for the test.

“It’s an easy test, if you study,” said Roberto Delgado, 34, a maintenance supervisor for the Los Angeles school district who attended a university in El Salvador for three years before fleeing to the United States. “I was ready.”

Delgado and his wife, who also recently got a clerical job at the district, missed only one question each out of the dozen or so they were asked.

“Who said, ‘Give me liberty or give me death’ anyway?” Roberto Delgado asked.

Coreas agreed that this second step of the amnesty process was much easier than the first.

“In the beginning there was a lot of uncertainty and mistrust of the INS,” he said. “But it seems they have cooperated with us.”

Besides the “tranquility” they anticipate that their new legal status will bring, the Delgados and Coreas said one of the biggest advantages of gaining legal status is that they will be free to visit their native lands and to help close relatives immigrate.

After the press conference, in fact, Coreas said he planned to go to the central INS office downtown to pick up immigration applications for his wife and his mother, who were ineligible for amnesty.

“This is going to change my life,” Coreas said, noting that he will now be eligible to attend a public university and achieve his “dream of becoming a professional. . . .”

And, he added, “I will be able to participate in the political life of this country.”