INS Rescinds Renewal Deadline for Green Cards

Amid widespread confusion, U.S. immigration authorities confirmed Wednesday that they have rescinded a controversial August deadline for about 1 million longtime residents to renew their green cards or face revocation.

“The date will be lifted,” Duke Austin, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said from Washington.

However, Robert M. Moschorak, INS district director in Los Angeles, said his office had not been formally notified of the deadline’s demise and was still processing renewals under the assumption that the Aug. 1 cutoff date remained effective.

“We’ve been told it’s still business as usual,” said Moschorak, whose Los Angeles district encompasses a seven-county area with tens of thousands of affected immigrants. About 60,000 holders of legal documents in the area already have renewed their papers. “We’re still awaiting further word from Washington,” he said.

Moreover, it remained unclear whether the INS will impose a new deadline and, if so, whether officials will continue to impose a $70 renewal charge. Immigrants are challenging the fee as part of a broad federal class action suit that charges the entire mandatory renewal initiative is illegal because of a lack of notice and other violations.

“The INS, in its arrogance, thought it could implement a program of this magnitude without allowing comments from the public and without taking into consideration the people who are affected,” said Vibiana Andrade, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is assisting in the suit against the service.

Critics contend that the INS has made matters worse by failing to alert the public--or even its own districts--about dropping the deadline.

Austin blamed immigrant advocates for the mixed signals, suggesting that groups prematurely spread the word that the service intended to rescind the deadline. “I don’t think the blame falls on INS,” Austin said.

But lawyers for the immigrants say they were obligated to alert clients after Justice Department attorneys signaled their intentions last week in court papers. “There’s a lot of anxiety about this because of the deadline,” said another co-counsel in the case, Linton Joaquin, staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center. “People, basically, are confused.”

The lack of authoritative word has generated broad uncertainty among the estimated 1 million foreign-born people affected nationwide, all longtime residents who have been living lawfully in the United States since at least 1977. Word that the program was suspended has circulated in the Spanish-language media and elsewhere, adding to the bewilderment.

In Los Angeles, the crush of green-card holders seeking to renew documentation has exacerbated the already legendary delays encountered by those arriving at INS offices downtown. Many come in the pre-dawn darkness and wait for hours, only to be turned away.

“If it has been suspended, I certainly don’t want to go and stand in line,” said Sune Malmgren, a 72-year-old Swedish-born San Pedro man who is among many elderly immigrants facing renewal. “I think it’s poorly handled.”

U.S. authorities unveiled the renewal program in June as an effort to reduce extensive document fraud. Phony and stolen green cards and other bogus identification proliferate in Los Angeles and other areas with large immigrant populations, stymieing efforts to enforce laws prohibiting the hiring of illegal newcomers.

The idea is to replace aging green cards with newer, machine-readable documents that include each holder’s photograph, fingerprints and signature. The new cards, which will be more difficult to counterfeit, are valid for 10 years. The pre-1977 version was issued permanently.