Proposed Quake Aid Limits Seen as Mostly Symbolic : Immigrants: Illegal residents could still receive emergency benefits. But debate may have political impact.

The proposed congressional amendment barring illegal immigrants from receiving non-emergency earthquake aid may have more impact on election-year politics than any practical effect on providing assistance to disaster victims, federal officials and immigration activists say.

For one thing, the bulk of President Clinton’s $8.6-billion aid package would go toward fixing freeways, schools and other public facilities rather than assisting individuals. Moreover, much of the aid to individuals is earmarked for emergency shelter, food and medical care--all of which are exempt from the proposed regulations.

Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt said the amendment would have little impact on his agency, which primarily distributes short-term emergency aid. “The amendment I have seen wouldn’t hinder our efforts,” he said.

Emergency officials say they have no idea what percentage of aid-seekers are undocumented immigrants since they do not inquire, but Witt and others said they do not think the numbers are sizable. Studies have shown that most undocumented residents do not seek long-term aid from government agencies because of fear of being deported. One such study showed that Latinos--including illegal immigrants--use government health and welfare benefits at half the rate of whites and a fifth of the rate of blacks, according to UCLA professor David Hayes-Bautista.

“Not that many undocumented will apply for these programs,” Hayes-Bautista said. “Economically, it is meaningless.”

The proposed regulation, introduced by Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) and adopted in modified form by the House on Thursday, would be aimed primarily at excluding illegal immigrants from longer-term aid programs such as 18-month housing subsidy grants provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and low-interest residential and business loans offered by the Small Business Administration. The bill, with the amendment, still must be acted on by the Senate.

While the amendment bars federal agencies from giving long-term federal disaster aid to anyone they know to be in the country illegally, it does not require them to ask applicants their residency status. “Unless there is a mandate to ask, the federal agencies won’t ask,” said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, adding that the amendment is therefore largely symbolic. “We are again seeing political fraud.”

But Packard said that if the amendment is enacted, “agencies will determine how to implement the law.”

“If they choose to not find ways to implement that law, we will find ways for them to do it,” he said.

Because extensive paperwork is required for an SBA loan--applicants must also submit federal income tax forms and a Social Security number--few undocumented residents would be likely to apply for disaster assistance loans, SBA officials said.

“The bottom line is, we have never heard of a single case of an illegal getting a loan,” said Alfred Judd, deputy assistant administrator for disaster assistance for the SBA.

HUD’s Section 8 housing subsidy program for quake victims has moved forward so quickly that the implementation of a congressional ban might not occur until many earthquake victims have already received their vouchers and moved into their new homes.

Since the Jan. 17 earthquake, more than 11,000 people have qualified for housing vouchers and 1,426 of them have located new apartments. The only remaining steps before they move in are government inspections to make sure the units are shipshape and the signing of contracts with landlords.

“I don’t think we could undo what’s done,” said Joe Shuldiner, assistant secretary of HUD. “I don’t think contracts would be nullified.”

The detailed application procedure for winning housing subsidies makes it unlikely that many undocumented immigrants would be served, Shuldiner said.

“We don’t have a sense the people receiving certificates are undocumented,” he said. “As a practical matter . . . we’re talking about people waiting on line for a long time, filling out forms in which they have to give their Social Security numbers.”

Since 1980, Congress has voted several times to restrict housing assistance programs to only legal residents. However, implementation was held up as a result of court decisions and public criticism of the enabling regulations.

The push for regulations against aid to illegal immigrants is an issue that HUD Secretary Henry G. Cisneros would prefer to sidestep during the current emergency, according to a White House aide involved with immigration policy and earthquake issues.

“He thinks the earthquake is not the time to start making policy on this,” said the aide. “He’s reluctant to turn HUD field officers into immigration cops.”

Shuldiner concurred that HUD officials are concerned “about this being imposed here for the first time.”

“If this is something Congress wants to do to address problems with undocumented aliens, the department would hope they’d take it up as part of an immigration issue rather than a supplemental to disaster relief.”

Over the years, Republican as well as Democratic HUD officials have expressed concerns about barring aid to illegal residents, who are eligible to send their children to public schools and to receive emergency medical care. In 1990, President George Bush’s HUD secretary, Jack Kemp, warned Costa Mesa officials that they risked losing federal funding if they barred illegal immigrants from receiving HUD-related social services.

Those favoring Packard’s restrictions call current government policy schizophrenic.

“They want to enforce immigration law at the border, but once illegals are in the U.S., they want to play Santa Claus,” said FAIR’s Stein.

But immigrant advocates counter that the limitations are motivated by ugly political interests, and fear the amendment may have negative ramifications for some undocumented residents, as well as the public at large.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking Thursday at the Central American Resource Center, blasted the proposal as “immoral and unfair.” Joined by Los Angeles City Council members Jackie Goldberg and Mark Ridley-Thomas, Jackson denounced the “resurrection of anti-immigrant hysteria” nationwide and called for the defeat of the provision.

Roberto Lovato, the center’s executive director, said, “We have reached a moral low as a country when we deny emergency aid to anyone.

“This is part of the whole anti-immigrant agenda,” he said. “This is the first salvo in an ongoing battle this election year.”

Lovato said that limitations on housing and other assistance could result in more homelessness and crime by some of the county’s estimated 700,000 illegal residents. “A lot of people presume that if immigrants don’t get aid, they will go away,” said Angelo Ancheta, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “People won’t go back to Tijuana. They will stay in the parks.”

Times staff writers Patrick J. McDonnell and Alan C. Miller contributed to this report.