‘Late Filers’ for Amnesty Camp Out at INS Offices

Hoping for a last chance to qualify under the federal amnesty program, hundreds of undocumented aliens have been crowding Southern California offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, some camping out overnight only to be turned away because of a shortage of staff to process all the cases.

Although the amnesty program officially ended in May, 1988, the new rush has resulted from two lawsuits that cleared the way for an estimated 250,000 more people to qualify for permanent residency.

The lawsuits, filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens and Catholic Social Services, contended that the INS unfairly excluded people who had left the country briefly since 1982. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Naturalization Act granted amnesty to aliens who could prove they had been living in this country continuously since 1982.

The lawsuits asked that amnesty be extended to people who left the country for “brief, casual or innocent” periods since 1982 but maintained residency in the United States.

The INS, which is fighting the suits, has been ordered to begin processing applications of “late filers” under the new program, according to INS officials. But because staffing level at agency offices were reduced when the amnesty program ended, the new flood of applicants overburdened local staffs.

At the legalization office on Ritchey Street in Santa Ana, police were called last Monday when a fistfight broke out among several people over who was first in line. That same week, the crush of people waiting broke down one of the front doors, according to a private security officer at the office and to immigrant rights advocates.

Similar problems have occurred at the 10 legalization offices in the Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange County areas, INS officials say. Crowds also have been reported in recent weeks at legalization offices in Chicago, New York, Miami, Tucson and Phoenix, immigrant advocacy groups say.

“I’m hearing about fistfights all over the country,” said Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles.

In San Diego, several organizations that help migrants apply for the extended amnesty program say that local legalization offices have not experienced the crush of applicants that has been commonplace at other Southern California locations.

“We haven’t had that here at the local legalization office,” said Richard Garcia, executive director of the Centro de Asuntos Migratorios in Chula Vista. “We haven’t had many complaints about having to wait in line.”

The local INS legalization office is on Mission Village Road, near Jack Murphy Stadium.

Officials at other immigrants’ rights offices that help workers apply for amnesty echoed Garcia’s comments. None of the offices has reported a rush of applicants seeking help in filling out the amnesty forms.

Vicki Quainton, deputy district director of the local INS legalization office, said her office is receiving only a few inquiries about the program a week.

Local INS spokesman Rudy Murillo said that immigration officials have been dispatching local staffers to help out at other INS offices in Southern California with a heavy load of applicants.

Several immigration law activists say the low number of applicants in San Diego does not come as a surprise. San Diego is a transitory point for migrants, who want to keep heading north once they cross into the United States, they said.

“They’re not necessarily interested in staying here,” said Roberto Martinez, of the American Friends Service Committee, an immigrants’ rights group. “After they cross into the United States, most migrants head for Los Angeles and places further north.”