INS Asylum Center Moving to Anaheim : Immigration: Relocation of main hearing office from L.A. angers some rights leaders, who say that’s where it’s most needed. Anaheim drops its opposition.

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials announced Wednesday that the agency will move its main immigrant asylum hearing center from Los Angeles to downtown Anaheim by June.

The move has angered immigrant rights leaders, who say the majority of asylum seekers live near downtown Los Angeles. But Anaheim city leaders, who previously were reluctant to have the center move to downtown Anaheim because of parking and crowds, have dropped their opposition.

Rosemary Melville, INS asylum director for Los Angeles and Orange counties, said remodeling of the building at 300 S. Anaheim Blvd., across the street from City Hall, will begin within weeks and the move should be completed by June.

For the past year, most local asylum hearings have been held at temporary offices in the Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel. Before the move to Laguna Niguel, local asylum hearings were held in downtown Los Angeles and a small, undetermined fraction will continue to be held there, Melville said.

But E. J. Flynn, the legal director of the Central American Refugee Center in Los Angeles, said the overwhelming majority of local asylum seekers are Salvadorans who live near downtown Los Angeles and it is unrealistic to expect them to travel to Anaheim.

Asylum seekers must appear at a hearing and persuade the officer that they have a legitimate fear of political, ethnic or religious persecution if they return to their homeland. Those whose claims are denied are ordered to leave the country unless they can persuade an appeals judge that they are otherwise qualified for residency.

Failure to appear at a hearing can lead to deportation. The refugee center is one of several immigrant groups which filed a still-pending lawsuit last year against the INS in an attempt to block the move out of Los Angeles.

“Many of my organization’s clients don’t have a car, so getting to Anaheim is going to be very hard on them,” Flynn said. “Most (local) asylum seekers live in Los Angeles, so the asylum office should be in Los Angeles.”

Melville said she could not discuss the reasons for the move to Anaheim or out of Los Angeles and said questions about why Anaheim was selected would have to be answered by officials at INS headquarters in Washington.

Attempts to reach officials there failed Wednesday.

In an interview last year, Melville said the office was being moved from downtown Los Angeles to Orange County because the agency was trying to improve the work environment to attract quality hearing officers.

“We didn’t want to go through training people . . . and then they show up and say ‘God, I can’t stand the neighborhood’ and leave,” she said then.

The 51 asylum officers at the Anaheim office--there will be 94 total employees--will handle 120 daily hearings for immigrants seeking asylum who live in Southern California, except for San Diego County.

“This is a very specialized office, not a general information office,” Melville said. “Asylum applicants will go there once, at an appointed time. This will not have much affect on congestion in the city of Anaheim.”

This relieved city officials who had said they would oppose the move if the center added a significant number of cars to the already crowded streets near City Hall. City and INS officials met Tuesday to discuss the move.

“Ms. Melville said that if we see any problems we can walk down and talk to her,” Mayor Fred Hunter said. “My law office is right down the street, and if there are any problems I intend to do that. But they did address my concerns.”