Gallegly Asks INS to Reopen Local Office : Oxnard: The congressman wants the agency to help legal immigrants obtain new green cards. The site was shut in 1991.

A push to reopen an immigration office in Oxnard is being spearheaded by a Simi Valley congressman whose stance on border issues has drawn criticism from Latino activists and political opponents.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) on Wednesday asked the head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to reopen the Oxnard field office to help thousands of legal immigrants in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties obtain new green cards.

The INS is conducting a yearlong campaign to replace residency cards issued before 1978 with new, tamper-resistant cards. The cards are proof of permanent resident immigration status.

To get the new cards, legal immigrants in the three counties must pay $70 and travel to the nearest INS office in Los Angeles.

“This travel requirement imposes a large hardship on many of these legal residents, especially due to the lack of public transportation in the region,” Gallegly said in a statement. “Many will suffer a loss of income due to missed work while traveling to L. A., along with the direct expenses involved.”

John Frith, an aide to Gallegly in Washington, said he knows that the three-term congressman has made his share of enemies on the immigration issue.

“His position has been misunderstood by many and misrepresented by some,” Frith said. “Many believe that Elton is some anti-Hispanic bigot who wants to kick every Latino American out of the country. His bills are designed to close the back doors of illegal immigration to ensure that the front door of legal immigration remains opened.”

The INS office in Oxnard closed in early 1991 along with other satellite immigration offices, making it more difficult for immigrants from outlying areas to handle immigration matters.

INS officials explained at the time that the office only was meant to stay open until immigrants completed the two- to three-year process of becoming permanent residents under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

Since then, migrant advocates said immigrants in the three counties have been forced to take daylong trips to Los Angeles to do business with the INS, incurring travel expenses and lost wages.

“It has been a pain in the butt,” said farm worker attorney Marco Antonio Abarca. “But life has always been a pain in the butt for these people.”

Some of those who protested the closure applauded the move to reopen the office, but doubted that it would happen.

“We would welcome the INS reopening its Oxnard office,” said Greg Simons, immigration coordinator with El Concilio del Condado de Ventura. “But with the INS shifting its resources from immigration service to law enforcement, I think the chances are slim that it will be done.”

Simons added that Gallegly’s proposal is too narrow in that the office, if reopened, would only service immigrants exchanging their residency cards.

“We would love to see other immigration services offered out here as well,” he said.

Added Abarca: “If the INS is going to be generating all of these funds from these people, the government should at least be willing to serve them.”

Gallegly’s push to reopen the Oxnard office comes after the INS launched “Operation Green Card,” a program to replace residency cards due to expire by July 31, 1993.

Legal immigrants will receive more sophisticated cards that can be scanned by machine and contain more identifying information including a head shot, fingerprint and signature of the person to whom it was issued. The old documents, known as “green cards” because of their original color, came in 17 varieties.

The INS program will result in one card that is more difficult to copy, said Rico Cabrera, public information officer with the INS district office in Los Angeles.

The replacement campaign will affect 1.5 million resident card holders nationwide.

Cabrera said the district headquarters has been trying to find a way to take the replacement program to residents of outlying counties who are disabled or who otherwise can’t go to Los Angeles.

Cabrera said he had not heard of Gallegly’s proposal, but that reopening the Oxnard office was not now being considered.

Gallegly recently introduced legislation aimed at making residency cards harder to copy. He also has introduced controversial legislation that has drawn fire from Latino rights activists.

In October, he proposed a constitutional amendment that would deny U. S. citizenship to children born in this country to illegal immigrants. A month earlier, he introduced a package of five bills calling for nearly doubling the size of the Border Patrol, and prohibiting unemployment and welfare payments to illegal residents.