Local News in Brief : New Amnesty Ruling

An order issued Friday by federal immigration officials will allow illegal aliens who overstayed tourist and student visas before Jan. 1, 1982, to apply for amnesty at legalization offices in Los Angeles and other cities.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service order came in response to a ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Stanley Sporkin that broadened an agency regulation dictating that illegal aliens with expired visas had to be known to immigration authorities before Jan. 1, 1982, in order to be eligible for amnesty. Sporkin ruled that immigrants are eligible for amnesty as long as any government agency knew of their expired visas.

Public interest attorneys who filed the legal case against the INS have estimated that 500,000 immigrants, many from Asia and Europe, could be affected by the ruling.

Although an INS response to the ruling is still pending, agency spokesman Verne Jervis said that immigrants who fit the newly broadened “known to the government” guidelines would be allowed to apply for amnesty and receive temporary work cards pending a final decision on the legal issue.

Jay Fong, an attorney with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, said that INS offices in the western region (California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii) have already been accepting most “known to the government” cases.