‘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 local 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.

Dona Coultice, of the INS office in Laguna Niguel, said the crush is worse in certain areas than in others.

“Frankly, the offices closer to downtown Los Angeles, and the one in San Fernando, are the hardest hit,” she said. “Huntington Park and Hollywood are also feeling it, probably because of the large concentration of undocumenteds.”

Nilesh Patel, a Los Angeles insurance salesman, camped out overnight with a friend from India outside the Wilshire Boulevard INS office last week, waiting for it to open. They arrived at 6 p.m. the day before to assure they would be waited on, along with 30 or 40 other people.

“They only took the first 10 people in line, and we never got in,” Patel said. “My friend is just going to keep trying. It’s first come, first served. I think 10 is too small a number.”