Crowds, Confusion Mark Countdown on Amnesty Filing

With the clock running out on the alien amnesty program that ends tonight at midnight, anxious immigrants crowded federal offices Tuesday--sometimes by mistake--as officials made final appeals to those who are eligible, and have not yet applied, to do so.

In Orange County, long lines of people queued up at U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services offices in Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Buena Park, where officials now say they expect to process a combined total of about 140,000 applications by midnight tonight.

At the downtown Los Angeles headquarters of the INS, thousands of immigrants lined up to apply for political asylum and registry, two other procedures for attaining legal status. They apparently misunderstood the well-publicized May deadline as applying to them as well.

A dramatic increase in the number of applications filed by agricultural workers, under another section of the amnesty law, also signaled some confusion on the part of these applicants. They actually have until Nov. 30 to file their applications. Political asylum and registry applications may be filed any time.

But for others, said INS spokesman Neil Henry, at midnight tonight “the door slams, the windows shut. Anyone who feels they qualify should apply. There won’t be another chance.”

Added William King, INS regional director for legalization: “If there’s any doubt in the mind of anyone, they should file. Don’t self-disqualify.” King noted that under an abbreviated application process instituted recently, immigrants may merely file application forms with the required $185 money order. Applicants then have 90 days to submit documentation proving that they have lived in the United States since 1981.

Those who don’t have the required fee may go to specified social service agencies, known as “Qualified Designated Entities,” and file a “consent to forward” form, indicating that they plan to file.

The atmosphere at the INS office in Santa Ana on Tuesday was reflective of the staggering numbers processed so far.

It was “crazy,” said Chief Legalization Officer George Newland. “After seeing what’s happened yesterday and today I feel that (today) will also be crazy.”

On Monday the Santa Ana office stayed open until about 8:30 p.m. and received 1,850 applications, Newland said. As of 5 p.m. Tuesday the office had received about 2,000 more applications.

The office, which opened last May, is expected to process a total of about 50,000 undocumented workers by midnight tonight, Newland said.

For most of the day a line of nearly 100 people streamed out of the office at 1901 S. Ritchey St., Newman said. To his surprise, some of the people in line came into the office to pick up the forms needed to apply for amnesty, Newland said.

“If this keeps up we might get 3,000 to 4,000 applications in the last two days,” he said, adding that the numbers exceeded his expectations. “That is quite fantastic.”

The INS workers processing the applications at the Santa Ana office worked 10- to 14-hour shifts on Monday and expected to do the same Tuesday and today, Newman said. “These people are tired,” he said. “But then again (the amnesty program) doesn’t happen that often.”

In Buena Park the atmosphere was a bit more serene as lines usually containing about 20 people flowed through the INS office at 7342 Orangethorpe Ave. for most of the day.

“We’ve had a steady stream of applications come in,” said Ed Egan, the chief legalization officer at the Buena Park office. “It’s been like this since we opened this morning.”

On Monday the office received about 1,000 applications and by 5 p.m. Tuesday had received 750 more, Egan said. If the lines continue as they did Tuesday, Egan said, the office can expect to process nearly 1,500 applications today.

Egan said his office is staying open until all the applicants are processed, which on Monday meant closing the doors at midnight. For all three INS offices in Orange County, the big rush is expected today. “As it goes to the last day there are always some people who will wait until the last minute,” Egan said.

The chief legalization officer at the INS office in Garden Grove, Paul Callie, said his workers are also expecting a great rush of last-minute applications.

On Monday that office received 1,300 applications, and by 5 p.m. Tuesday had received 1,400 more. Callie said his office has processed 41,000 applications since it opened in May.

Callie called the line of 30 to 40 people moving through the office at 12912 Brookhurst St. “pretty calm” but added, “it is a lot more than I expected.”

King said that if necessary the 16 INS legalization offices in Southern California will stay open past midnight tonight to accept applications from immigrants already in line. “As long as there’s a line and people are handing in applications, we’ll keep taking them,” King sid. He added, however, that applications received in the mail must have a May 4 postmark.

So far, more than 600,000 amnesty applications and about 90,000 applications from agricultural workers have been filed in the Los Angeles district alone, officials said. The national total for amnesty applications is about 1.3 million so far.