Hermandad Seeks Apologies

The director of a Latino rights organization apparently cleared by a grand jury of criminal wrongdoing for allegedly registering noncitizens to vote demanded apologies Friday from two congressmen who described his group as criminal and corrupt.

At a spirited and upbeat news conference at the Santa Ana office of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, Executive Director Nativo V. Lopez said he would ask the Immigration and Naturalization Service to resume its former practice of interviewing citizenship applicants at Hermandad’s offices.

The INS interviews were suspended in January, after the district attorney opened a criminal investigation into allegations that Hermandad employees registered some clients to vote before they took the oath of citizenship.

Flanked by his attorneys and supporters from Latino advocacy groups and labor unions, Lopez celebrated his apparent victory and preached unity and healing. “It’s taken a significant toll on me personally,” he said, “but I’m not in any way bitter from this experience, and I ask you not to be bitter. We must be bigger morally than those people who have defamed us and dragged our name through the mud.”

Lopez demanded apologies from Rep. William M. Thomas (R-Bakersfield) and Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Texas). Thomas, who chairs a House committee looking into noncitizen voting in Orange County, has referred to Hermandad as a “criminal” organization. Speaking on the floor of the House, Bonilla once called Hermandad “one of the most corrupt organizations that has ever existed.”

Neither congressman could be reached for comment Friday night.

Sources told The Times this week that Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi was preparing to end his yearlong investigation of Hermandad and not file charges. The investigation began after authorities learned some noncitizens registered to vote at Hermandad. One source said the grand jury chose not to indict any Hermandad officials or employees after the prosecution ended its presentation three weeks ago.

The district attorney’s office would not confirm the end of the investigation nor comment on the grand jury proceeding. But Lopez’s attorney, Edward Munoz, said someone in the district attorney’s office unofficially told him there would be no indictments.

Secretary of State Bill Jones, who has advocated reforms to make it more difficult for noncitizens to register to vote, opened his own investigation last January and later called for a review of all 1.3 million voters in Orange County. That investigation is still pending.

Members of Capizzi’s office met with Jones on Thursday to discuss their investigation. Jones could not be reached for comment.

Lopez has conceded that some people registered to vote at Hermandad before completing the months-long citizenship process, but he attributed the problem to mistakes made during a hectic period. Hermandad helped thousands of legal residents become citizens and registered about 1,300 before the November 1996 election.

The controversy gained national attention when former congressman Robert K. Dornan blamed his 984-vote defeat to Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) in November 1996 on voter fraud, including votes by noncitizens.

Dornan convinced the House Oversight Committee, which Thomas chairs, to launch a separate investigation, which is still open. Democrats have called for the congressional investigation to end since the grand jury apparently did not find an intent to commit vote fraud.

At the news conference, Lopez broke down when he described how the district attorney’s probe affected him and his family. He said his wife and one of three daughters went to Guanajuato, Mexico, in January, in part to escape the stress of the investigation and hounding by reporters.

His wife, Rosa Ibarra, a naturalized U.S. citizen who helped direct citizenship classes at Hermandad, is seeking medical treatment in Mexico, Lopez said. He said he has seen his wife and 12-year-old daughter only three times in the last year.

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Several speakers Friday said they had feared the investigation would be influenced by politics and press coverage, which they said was inflammatory and lacked context. They praised the legal system for vindicating Hermandad and blamed conservative Republicans for inflating the significance of the improper registrations.

“This was not about searching for the truth, it was about politics,” said John Palacio, associate director of Schoolwatch Sentry, an education watchdog group. “My message to Republicans is to start the healing process. Republicans need to see the Latino community as a positive asset and an active partner versus as a political whipping boy.”

Lopez said the investigation left a shadow hanging over Hermandad that has cut into its fund-raising ability and sharply reduced its membership. He said that before the investigation, the center attracted about 2,000 citizenship applicants a month. Now, the number is down to about 1,000 a month.

One reason for the drop was the INS decision to withdraw the adjudicators who would visit Hermandad to interview applicants. Now, Lopez said, he organizes busloads of applicants to go to INS offices in Bellflower.

INS District Director Richard Rogers said that he had not yet received a request from Hermandad to restore the services and that he would not automatically restore them even when the criminal probe is officially ended.

“He’s going to have to explain what happened,” Rogers said. “There are some questions I would need answered before I would do anything about returning there.”

Munoz, Lopez’s attorney, said he hoped the grand jury decision would “bring closure to this investigation” and “let this organization and its leadership get back to the business of providing leadership to the people it serves.”