Thousands Jam INS Offices in 11th-Hour Effort to Get Green Cards

Amid great uncertainty and anxiety, thousands descended Friday on Immigration and Naturalization Service offices in Los Angeles and elsewhere on what--barring eleventh-hour congressional action--was the final day of a controversial provision allowing certain illegal immigrants to pay a $1,000 fine and complete the green card application process in the United States.

The great majority waiting in line feared separation of long-settled families that often include a mix of U.S. citizens, lawfully resident noncitizens and illegal immigrants.

“I want to be sure my family stays together,” said Carlos Mora, a legal U.S. resident and gardener who is petitioning for his undocumented wife and 5-year-old daughter and was among the multitudes waiting for hours outside INS headquarters.

Others besieged the offices of private attorneys and nonprofit groups.

“The tension, the pressure, the sense of urgency and desperation is just awesome,” said an overwhelmed Juan Jose Gonzalez, executive director of One Stop Immigration, an East Los Angeles social service agency where the midafternoon queue stretched a block down Whittier Boulevard.

Adding to the confusion was a possible congressional accord that would grandfather in hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants with pending green card applications through legal resident relatives, including U.S. citizens, or via employers. The deal, still being negotiated in Washington, would preserve all applicants’ eventual right to finish the process in the United States--even if their visa slots were not available for years to come.

Several Latino congressmen, including Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), had strongly urged residents to file petitions on behalf of loved ones by Friday. That call was widely disseminated in Spanish-language media and added to a sense of frenzied urgency nationwide.

“A lot of people saw something on the news and decided to come, even though they didn’t have applications with them,” said Gail Montenegro, an INS spokeswoman in Chicago, where crowds waiting in the fall chill were three times the normal size.

In Los Angeles, more than 3,400 people had stood outside the INS by late Friday, also tripling the usual workload.

INS offices throughout the United States remained open until midnight Friday to accommodate late applicants.

On Capitol Hill, meantime, negotiations were expected to continue through the weekend on the budget package that includes the immigration deal, leaving the future murky for legions of immigrant families.

Democratic leaders were still lobbying to add a grace period of at least 30 days but as much as 180 days to give people a chance to file green card applications for relatives and preserve the right of their loved ones to complete the green card process in the United States.

At the core of the complex issue is Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The measure--enshrined in law by Congress in 1994 and championed by backers as a means to maintain family unity--was set to expire Friday after several extensions.

The long-obscure section allows certain illegal immigrants with pending green card applications via family members or employers to complete the paperwork and interview procedures here by paying a $1,000 fine. Previously, these applicants had to leave the United States and finish matters at U.S. consulates abroad. Only those with approved visa slots--typically acquired after years on waiting lists--are eligible to use the measure.

In the last three years, more than 500,000 illegal immigrants have applied for green cards, or permanent legal residency, through Section 245(i). The law has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for the INS and has greatly reduced the workload of U.S. consulates abroad. The Clinton administration supported a permanent extension of the section, which the Senate also backed.

But House Republicans, led by Southern California Republicans such as Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), balked at any extension. Critics say the section wrongly rewards illegal immigrants.

A major crackdown by Congress last year upped the ante considerably. Among other things, lawmakers barred illegal immigrants who leave the United States from returning lawfully for up to 10 years--a provision that, in effect, left Section 245(i) as the only hope for legions of undocumented people seeking to regularize their status.

Times staff writer Jodi Wilgoren in Washington contributed to this story.