Green Card Deadline Prompts Fears : Immigration: Hundreds are flooding INS offices as Monday--the date to replace old cards--quickly approaches.

“No more tickets,” the red-jacketed official repeated over and over Tuesday morning, stunning a line of hundreds of frustrated men, women and children gathered outside the offices of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Downtown Los Angeles.

“How can there be no more tickets?” asked a disbelieving Vicente Fernandez, a computer technician from Newport Beach who had been waiting for three hours. “I can’t miss another day’s work.”

Queues are growing and nerves are fraying in Los Angeles and elsewhere as hundreds of thousands of longtime legal immigrants nationwide face a Monday deadline for replacing green cards.

In recent weeks, a surge of apprehensive green-card holders seeking to beat the impending application cutoff has besieged INS offices in Southern California and elsewhere, lengthening already-legendary delays at INS sites. Many applicants arrive in the pre-dawn darkness and wait for hours, only to be turned away, often losing a day’s work.

Indeed, the daily allotment of about 500 “tickets” for appointments at the bustling INS headquarters Downtown now runs out not long after the office opens at 6 a.m. About 700 people were there Tuesday morning.

The impending cutoff has generated great anxiety among the up to 1 million immigrants affected nationwide, including many elderly. All are longtime U.S. residents who were issued their green cards, known technically as Form I-151, before 1979.

Their current cards will no longer be valid after Monday; those failing to obtain replacements will lose their all-important proof of legal status, posing problems upon re-entering the United States, applying for employment and seeking Social Security or other public benefits.

Some green-card holders could even theoretically face detention as authorities attempted to verify their status. But officials stress that no one becomes “illegal” because they failed to replace their green cards. There will be no mass arrests or deportations of immigrants whose cards lapse, authorities say.

“They don’t lose their status, and they’re not going to be deported,” said Rico Cabrera, an INS spokesman in Los Angeles.

Nonetheless, at a time when polls show U.S. residents increasingly cool toward immigrants, many longtime green-card holders are feeling singularly apprehensive. Some see a link to what they consider a growing anti-immigrant sentiment in California and nationwide.

“It’s not a crime to be an immigrant,” declared a disgusted Michelle Bruell, a citizen of England who has lived in the United States for almost 20 years and was waiting in an information line Tuesday with her mother. “We pay our taxes. They should have the decency to be a little more respectful, rather than this cattle call they have there.”

Behind the replacement program is an effort to replace easily counterfeited aging green cards with newer, machine-readable models that contain photographs, fingerprints and signatures of the bearers. No one even knows exactly how many pre-1979 green cards are in circulation.

However, while the new cards are aimed at cutting off opportunities for illegal arrivals, the burden has fallen on long-time legal immigrants. Only the aged and disabled may file by mail, a safeguard that authorities say is needed to reduce the opportunity for fraud.

To many, the time-consuming, complex process has confirmed longtime criticism that the INS has emphasized enforcement to the detriment of its other principal task, service. Many green-card holders said they learned by chance about the need to replace their documents, although the INS embarked upon the program more than two years ago.

“There’s probably a lot of people out there who weren’t even aware they have to do this,” said Maggie Robinson, a Canadian who arrived at the INS office Downtown at 5:30 a.m.--only to be nearly turned away as the tickets for appointments ran out.

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Frustrated, many green-card holders have simply applied for citizenship, motivated in part by a desire never to have to face INS bureaucracy again. Citizenship applications have risen sharply.

INS officials say they have done their best to get the word out about the approaching deadline. Overwhelmed by demand, authorities blame green-card holders for not coming forward sooner.

“There are long lines because people waited until the last two weeks,” complained Richard K. Rogers, the INS district director in Los Angeles.

In response to the crush, INS office hours have been extended and personnel has been redeployed. But still the multitudes of applicants keep arriving.

“I just hope it doesn’t get any worse,” said Rogers. “We’re right at the limit.”

Faced with a similar eleventh-hour surge of applicants last year, authorities extended the deadline to this month, the second time an impending cutoff date had been postponed. But federal officials say they have no plan for a similar extension this time.

Meantime, confusion is rampant.

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While the INS has set up an automated 800 number to field inquiries, immigrants say that getting information via telephone is at best a frustrating process. Like survivors of some great misfortune, they swap tales of hours of busy signals and continual redialing.

Norma Ballasteros, who is attempting to file on behalf of her 90-year-old, disabled mother, said it took her five hours to get through to a live INS officer.

“My mother’s really worried about this,” said Ballasteros, who is 65 and has a bad back.

In a brown envelope, she carried her mother’s application, including a receipt for the “Alien Head Tax” paid when Carmen Celia Beltran crossed the bridge over the Rio Grande into Laredo, Tex., on Sept. 17, 1925. She received her green card that same day, records show.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Replacing Green Cards Immigrants holding green cards issued before 1979 must apply for replacement documents with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service by March 20 or face loss of evidence of legal residence status. A mail-in procedure is available only for those unable to appear because of advanced age or physical disability.

REQUIREMENTS: Each applicant must present his or her green card, two photographs, a completed application and a check or money order to the INS for $75. Fee waiver requests are available for those who can demonstrate hardship.

INFORMATION: Information on how and where to apply can be obtained by calling the INS at (800) 755-0777, or (213) 526-7647. Expect delays.

AREA OFFICES: The INS is accepting applications and providing forms at the following locations:

* Downtown Los Angeles, 300 N. Los Angeles St., 6 a.m.-3 p.m., Mon.-Fri., except for Thursday, when office closes at 1 p.m.

* Eastside, 1241 S. Soto St., 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Mon-Fri.

* Westminster, 14560 Magnolia St., 7 a.m.-4 p.m., Mon-Fri.

* Riverside, 777 Blaine St., 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Mon.-Fri.

Applicants are advised to arrive early.