Illegal Immigrants Will Be Released Without Bond : INS: Change applies to those who ask for deportation hearings. Before, they had to post at least $1,000.

In a major change in policy, illegal immigrants arrested here will be released on their own recognizance if they ask for a deportation hearing, Border Patrol officials said Tuesday.

Previous Immigration and Naturalization Service policy required illegal immigrants contesting deportation to post a bond of at least $1,000 or be housed in detention while awaiting a hearing.

The change took Border Patrol agents, INS officials and immigration attorneys by surprise.

Illegal immigrants also can forgo a hearing by opting for voluntary deportation, a choice many make so they can return to the other side of the border.

Privately, INS officials said that they oppose the change. They warned that it will create a logistic problem for INS staff as they try to keep track of immigrants released on their own recognizance with the promise to appear at a court hearing.

Border Patrol spokesman Steve Kean said the change will be effective beginning Friday only in the San Diego sector, which covers an area roughly from the border to the San Onofre immigration checkpoint and to the Imperial County border. The sector consistently has the highest number of arrests of illegal immigrants in the United States.

Kean said the change was made because of the closure of the small Border Patrol detention facility in San Ysidro, which officials said is no longer cost-effective to operate. The facility, which could house 300 illegal immigrants, will be closed by Sunday.

Last year, 4,637 illegal immigrants described by the Border Patrol as “other than Mexican” were detained at the agency’s San Ysidro facility, some of whom had requested deportation hearings.

Agents arrested 540,347 illegal immigrants in the San Diego sector in 1991, most of them Mexican nationals, Kean said. Now, those who must be held will be sent to INS detention facilities in El Centro or Descanso, in East San Diego County.

In addition, the new policy was needed because “the number of people detained for deportation hearings has decreased significantly in the last couple of years.” In the past, most people who requested deportation hearings were illegal immigrants identified by the Border Patrol as “other than Mexican,” he said.

“As things stabilized in Central America and the Mexican government increased its enforcement (of immigration laws) on the border with Guatemala, we have noticed a sharp decrease in the number of people requesting these hearings,” Kean said.

Some Border Patrol agents who spoke to The Times and who did not want to be identified said they fear that the new policy will benefit mostly smugglers and Mexican nationals arrested by the Border Patrol.

“As soon as word gets out, you’re going to have the coyotes (smugglers) telling the aliens to ask for a deportation hearing . . . when they’re apprehended. And why not? Get arrested, get released without having to post bond and continue north,” said a veteran agent.

However, Kean said Border Patrol officials do not believe that illegal Mexican immigrants will abuse the policy.

“I don’t think the average person entering the country will utilize that sort of tactic,” said Kean. “Asking for a hearing will create a permanent record with the INS. If a person fails to appear at a hearing, he can be ordered deported in absentia and cannot reapply for entry into the United States or adjustment of status for five years.” Failure to appear at the hearing is a felony offense.

Immigration attorney Robert Mautino of San Diego was not as confident.

“My first reaction is that people who know they can get out (of custody) without having to post bond will probably take advantage of it,” Mautino said.