INS Ordered to Let Thousands of Illegal Migrants Seek Amnesty

A federal judge in Los Angeles ordered the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Friday to review the cases of tens of thousands of immigrants nationwide who say they were wrongly denied a chance at legal status under the 1986 federal amnesty law.

U.S. District Judge William Keller issued an injunction requiring the government to accept and process applications from immigrants who were turned away from INS offices or from private agencies working on the agency’s behalf during the amnesty application period.

Under the amnesty program, nearly 3 million formerly illegal immigrants received legal status.

The decision is a major victory for immigrants who have been in court for more than a decade seeking to win legal status under the amnesty law.

The marathon case has already been to the U.S. Supreme Court once and to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals twice--but without a definitive decision.

Judge Keller issued his first order in the case 11 years ago, directing the INS to accept late applications from immigrants who said they had been improperly turned away. The government appealed the decision, setting the case on its long course through the legal system.

Those eligible for amnesty must have resided in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982. Many so-called late-amnesty applicants have U.S.-born children and own homes and businesses. Although some have acquired temporary work permits from the INS, most have remained illegal immigrants.

“These families have endured extreme and unnecessary hardship over the past 10 years, afraid to report crime, working illegally for unscrupulous and exploitative employers, and always afraid of arrest and deportation,” said the litigants’ lawyer, Peter Schey of Los Angeles.

More than 100,000 applicants nationwide may be affected, Schey said, more than one-third of them in the Los Angeles area. Most are Mexican citizens, but immigrants of many nations are involved.

The INS has said the number of legitimate applicants is much lower but could provide no precise number.

Judge Keller’s order comes two days after a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit dealt a major blow to a different group of amnesty seekers. The appeals panel threw out a related case that, according to Schey, also involves more than 100,000 people wrongly denied a chance to file for amnesty. An appeal will be sought in that case, Schey said. Both cases are class actions.

The government contends that the applicants were ineligible for legal status because they left the U.S. at least once from 1982 to 1988. The amnesty law generally disqualified applicants who left the country during that period.

Throughout the litigation, the INS has maintained that most applicants were fraudulently trying to attain legal status. The government has spent $40 million fighting the claims and complying with interim court orders, Schey said.

INS spokesman Bill Strassberger said the agency had not yet had a chance to review the latest decision and could not comment. The INS had sought to have the case dismissed on the grounds that a 1996 law and other decisions had taken jurisdiction from federal courts.

Those affected by Friday’s order now have 18 months to file applications with the INS. The agency must then provide a written decision to anyone denied a chance to seek amnesty, the judge ruled.