Agencies in Scramble on Amnesty Eve : Some Fear They Won’t Be Prepared for Expected Rush

With the start today of the nation’s immigration legalization program, Orange County church and social-service agencies are scrambling to get ready for inquiries from thousands of eligible applicants living in the county.

Although officials differ on how many people will actually appear at immigration centers today, they agree that increasing numbers of county applicants will come forward during the next few months and may eventually strain the limited resources of local agencies.

On Monday, for example, several charitable organizations--on whom the success of amnesty registration hinges--were still looking for volunteers, photocopying machines, file cabinets, index cards and computers.

“We’ve been working frantically to get our operation up and running,” said Ted McCabe, acting coordinator of Catholic Immigration and Citizenship Service, a branch of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

“It’s similar to the situation at INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) offices in the county. We’re getting furniture in place, getting staff together. It’s a complex process.”

Diocesan officials do not anticipate a large number of Orange County’s nearly 129,000 eligible applicants to show up today at INS offices or special centers at parishes throughout the county. The amnesty program is still new and “people will wait to see how others fare before getting involved themselves,” McCabe explained.

But the numbers are expected to increase dramatically, and the organization has trained nearly 600 volunteers to help counsel applicants in filling out forms, establishing proof of residency, getting required medical tests, fingerprinting, and so forth, he said.

On Monday, McCabe and his colleagues were also putting out several bureaucratic brush fires. Special cards which will contain applicants’ fingerprints, for example, had been incorrectly coded and were going to be sent to a Los Angeles, rather than Orange County, INS office for review, McCabe said.

“We have to make sure they go to the right place,” he explained. “So we spend a lot of time correcting that problem . . . it’s hundreds of things like that we’re facing.”

Elsewhere, volunteers at the main World Relief office in Garden Grove and other Southland locations were preparing for a flood of amnesty applicants today, according to associate director Luis Madrigal. The group, which is offering assistance to applicants from Hispanic Evangelic denominations, expects to process about 40,000 applicants during the coming year, he said.

“We have a lot of volunteers, people that have come through training sessions in our Garden Grove office,” Madrigal said, adding that the group’s immigration center at a Santa Ana church will be manned by six volunteers. “Today alone we had 40 plus people to train.”

Even though applicants have a year in which to seek amnesty under the federal program, Madrigal said “because of the perceived idea that everything has to be taken care of tomorrow, there’s going to be a lot of people at the (immigration) sites. They’ll be inundated with people.”

Although agencies have had several months to gear up for the program, “I guess to some extent we would always wish we had more time,” he said. “We’ve had to do the best we can, with limited resources, financial and otherwise.”

Similar Concerns

In Los Angeles, several church and social-service agencies expressed similar concerns.

Officials at St. Simon Episcopal Church in San Fernando, for example, were in need of basic office supplies but were especially looking for furniture. Church officials were worried that they will be inundated by thousands of applicants after the center opens at noon.

Officials at the International Institute in Boyle Heights, a social services agency, said it has already spent a $20,000 grant it was given to gear up for amnesty. As a result, it cannot offer sign-ups every day, said Lavinia Limon, the institute’s director.

The institute also is pressing for more funds for additional computers to handle the 25,000 applications it expects to get, but the funds may not be obtained for some time, she said.

The amnesty unit at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in South-Central Los Angeles was shoved into a small room in the parish rectory recently after it was evicted from the church’s community center on South Main Street in a squabble with the building owner.

Become Chaotic

The cramped quarters has church officials worried that the amnesty process there could become chaotic.

And officials at three San Fernando Valley sign-up centers are hesitant about opening today because they have yet to receive the final amnesty regulations that were released Friday by the INS. “I hope the mail comes in early Tuesday,” said one official, who asked that his name not be used.

There were no estimates late Monday on precisely how many of the 80 or so church and social service agency sign-up sites in the Los Angeles area may be unprepared for today. Of the 20 agencies contacted by The Times, 15 reported that they were having problems. Some activists say more and more agencies were voicing concerns as start-up day approached.

“The INS, despite all its pronouncements, dropped the load of . . . recruitment of applications and the actual shed work on the church and the agencies that are not part of organized government,” said Chicano activist attorney Antonio Rodriguez. “And that spells disaster.”

‘Put It Off’

Father Bill Jansen, the pastor of Holy Cross, where one of the Los Angeles archdiocese’s 11 amnesty processing centers is located, added, “It’s better to put it off.”

The role of these agencies is crucial to the success of amnesty because as many as 4 million illegal immigrants in the United States may apply for resident legalization under the landmark immigration law that was signed by President Reagan late last year.

Some officials believe that the Los Angeles area could account for up to one third of all amnesty applications and many of those are likely to be processed by the churches and social-service agencies.

“There’s a deep, deep distrust of the INS,” said one Eastside lawyer, who asked that his name not be used. “The policeman of yesterday is going to be your buddy today, helping you with amnesty? Give me a break.”

Under the new immigration law, of which amnesty is a major provision, illegal immigrants can apply for legal resident status if they can show that they have lived in the United States since before Jan. 1, 1982. They have one year from today to apply. But those aliens captured by the INS since the law was signed--last Nov. 6--have only 30 days to sign up.

287,000 Signed Up

The Los Angeles Archdiocese has been aggressive in the preregistration process, signing up 287,000 aliens for amnesty, but church officials are hesitant to estimate how many will eventually come to the church processing centers, operated by Catholic Charities.

However, some INS officials believe that as many as 600,000 applications may be processed by the archdiocese.

Some activists, such as Limon at International Institute, said they are cautioning calm and patience for today, saying there is no need to rush in and sign up the first day.

“They ought to wait and see what shakes out of the trees,” she said. “I don’t see any problems serving 25,000 customers. I just don’t want to see them all this week.”

Los Angeles is not the only place in the country where these centers are facing problems.

In Texas, for example, few agencies have agreed to help the tens of thousands of potential applicants who live along the Texas-Mexico border, complained Joe Murray, chairman of the North Texas Immigration Coalition.

Polish-Language Forms

And in Chicago, Roman Catholic Church officials were scrambling to ensure that they have enough Polish-language forms. Although Latinos make up 90% of the illegals in the metropolitan area, as many as 24,000 illegal aliens from Poland also may sign up for amnesty.

The Los Angeles archdiocese has taken an aggressive approach to amnesty, setting up 11 processing centers in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Archbishop Roger M. Mahony said the church’s involvement is only natural, given that Latinos make up more than two-thirds of the 3 million Catholics in the archdiocese.

The church has been designated by the INS as a “qualified designated entity”--authorized by federal immigration authorities to file completed amnesty applications and be reimbursed for some of the costs involved.

(Some social-service agencies, such as the International Institute, will also process applications, but they are not QDEs. There are 27 QDE sites from Santa Maria in the north to Orange County.)

Because of the respect that the church commands among Latinos, the Catholic centers are expected to be the busiest of the amnesty processing sites in the Southland.

Similar Procedure

The processing procedure at the Catholic centers is similar to those expected to be employed by other social-service agencies involved in legalization.

Katie Meskell, a Catholic Charities spokeswoman, said a person who comes in this morning for the first time will sign up for an initial interview that will likely take place several weeks from now. The scheduling of these interviews will “correspond directly” to the order in which applicants came in to sign up, she said.

The first interviews will be for those who preregistered.

At the interviews, eligibility of an applicant is carefully studied. Documents--rent receipts, paid utility bills, school records and the like--are checked. After it is determined that a person’s amnesty application is valid, it is then filed with the INS.

Church officials are a bit uncertain about what to do about applications that they find to be deficient. “We’ll try to do the best we can,” one official said.

Once the INS receives the application, Meskell said Catholic Charities will receive, in return, a receipt, an appointment date for an interview with the INS and an employment authorization allowing the alien to work legally in the United States while the amnesty application is reviewed by federal immigration authorities.

Costs Vary

No alien will be required to go to INS officials until the date of his or her scheduled interview, church officials emphasized.

The cost of amnesty registration will vary from agency to agency.

Groups like the International Ladies Garment Workers Union are providing the service free to its members.

Among those charging a fee, the $55 price sought by Catholic Charities is perhaps the cheapest in Southern California. Each person will be charged $10 for the initial interview. If the application is forwarded to the INS, an additional $45 will be sought.

Other fees charged by agencies range upward from $200 to $350.

By comparison, the INS will charge $185 per person, with a limit of $420 for a family.

Orange County family becomes the first to file amnesty applications. Part II, Page 1.