U.S. Seized Farm Workers’ Papers, Coerced Confessions, Suit Charges

U.S. border agents from California to Texas have wrongly seized the immigration documents of hundreds of undocumented farm workers in recent months, often coercing the workers to sign confessions admitting that they had fraudulently received amnesty, a coalition of immigrants’ rights groups charged in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The groups alleged that amnesty seekers who have applied for legal residence as agricultural workers have been harassed and threatened by overzealous U.S. border inspectors seeking evidence of fraud.

“A lot of these people have lost their jobs and become separated from their families because of these actions,” said Roberto Martinez, who heads the U.S.-Mexico border project for the American Friends Service Committee, the social-action arm of the Religious Society of Quakers.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court here on the final day of the 18-month application period for those seeking amnesty as farm workers under the 1986 immigration law. Applicants may qualify for legal residence in the United States if they can demonstrate having worked with certain perishable crops for at least 90 days between May, 1986, and May, 1987.

Immigration centers throughout California and elsewhere reported being inundated as tens of thousands of last-minute applicants attempted to take advantage of what may well be their last opportunity to legalize their status in the United States. More than 1.1 million are ultimately expected to apply, more than half of them in California, under the farm worker amnesty.

Since May of this year, the lawsuit charges, officers of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service have pressured farm workers returning to the United States from Mexico to sign withdrawals of their amnesty applications or “confessions” admitting that they had committed fraud. (Farm workers who have received temporary residence cards through the amnesty program are permitted to enter and leave the United States legally.)

In some cases, said Betty Wheeler, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego, applicants were threatened with lengthy jail terms or hefty fines, and in at least one instance, warned that a child would be taken away. Those who “confessed” to fraud or agreed to relinquish their documents during interrogation have not been allowed to re-enter the United States.

“It’s a practice we’ve heard about all along the border,” said Wheeler, who noted that the plaintiffs will seek a preliminary injunction blocking the actions.

Immigration officials declined direct comment on the lawsuit, but denied any wrongdoing.

“In general, we feel that we are complying with the letter and spirit of the law,” said John Belluardo, an INS spokesman in Los Angeles.

Authorities concerned about rates of fraud that they say top 50% in some legalization centers have launched a well-publicized effort to dissuade such deception, videotaping some amnesty interviews, tightening agency reviews of applications and, in some cases, even increasing the evidence required of applicants. Critics have maintained that the fraud problem is exaggerated.