Suit Claims INS Overcharges Refugees From El Salvador

An immigrant rights group filed a class-action suit Thursday on behalf of thousands of Salvadoran refugees, claiming the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is charging prohibitively high fees to refugees applying for temporary safe haven in this country.

Robert Rubin, managing attorney for the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project of the San Francisco Lawyers’ Committee for Urban Affairs, which filed the complaint, said fees can total $1,000 for a family with several working members, putting the program out of reach for many.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, seeks a reduced registration fee for Temporary Protected Status and fee waivers to applicants who fall below the federal poverty line.

“This is supposed to be a humanitarian program and they are charging Salvadorans this horrendous fee,” said Madeline Janis, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center in Los Angeles. “People aren’t applying because they can’t afford it.”

Janis said the $405 fee for Salvadorans is unfair because Liberians, Libyans and Kuwaitis, who have also been granted the opportunity to apply, are only being charged $50.

INS spokesman Duke Austin said the agency is aware of the concerns over the registration costs, but he added that Congress specifically required that the temporary asylum program for Salvadoran refugees be self-supporting.

“This is the cost that has been determined,” he said.

The INS promised in February to lower the fee, but the cost for the 18 months of legal residence and work authorization provided by the program has increased from $330 per person to $405, he said.

Austin said the agency’s proposal to lower the fee is still being reviewed by the federal Office of Management and Budget.

The Temporary Protected Status program was approved by Congress last year in a groundbreaking effort to allow people fleeing war or natural disaster in their homelands to legally reside in this country.

Salvadorans were granted temporary refuge from January, 1991, to June, 1992.

The INS has received about 60,000 applications, out of an estimated Salvadoran population of 200,000 to 500,000. The deadline for applying is June 30.