INS Agrees to Ease Entry Regulations for Farm Workers

WASHINGTON —  Bowing to pressure from Western growers and California lawmakers, the Reagan Administration removed on Monday the last major barrier to speedier processing of migrant farm workers urgently needed to harvest perishable crops.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, which made several concessions last week, agreed to let workers enter or stay in the country without immediately presenting documents to prove their right to be here. The workers will be given 90 days to come up with the papers before facing possible deportation, immigration service Commissioner Alan C. Nelson said.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) said that he hopes the latest action will clear a logjam that has left crops rotting in the Pacific Northwest and threatens produce in California and other states.

However, Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento), although saying he is encouraged by the easing of regulations, questioned whether entering workers will be able to pay a $185 application fee that remains in effect.

The red tape problem developed when the immigration service and the State Department began trying to implement farm worker provisions in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which offers legal status to aliens who have worked in the perishable agriculture industry for at least 90 days since May, 1986.

After growers and members of Congress protested, White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. was instrumental in getting the immigration agency to come up with more “realistic” procedures, Wilson said.

Under the revised legalization procedure, foreign-based workers initially have to give only their word that they have worked in past U.S. harvests.

“We’re saying, ‘OK, you don’t have to have full documentation, but be able to say, I worked 90 days for the following growers,’ ” Nelson said. He added that workers would have to be “relatively specific as to where they worked and how long.”

Beginning Wednesday, illegal aliens seeking special agricultural worker status will fill out applications at a consulate or immigration service processing center, pay their $185 fees and say who they worked for in past harvests and where. Based on that, the workers will be given 90-day temporary work authorization cards and be allowed to enter the country. Once here, they must collect the documents and turn them over to the immigration service before the 90 days expire.

Last week, the immigration agency revised its rules on granting legal resident status to hundreds of thousands of illegal workers and expanded the legalization program.

Among the changes, the immigration service delayed from May 1 to June 26 the date by which agricultural workers must have either applied for legal status while still in their own country or entered this country to qualify for the new farm worker program.

The INS also announced that it would open a new border processing center at Calexico and would process legalization applications not only at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City but also at U.S. consulates in Monterrey and Hermosillo.

In a related matter, an aide said that Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) will discuss “farm worker problems and other defects in the legalization bill” Monday with Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop Roger Mahony and Father Luis Oliveras, chairman of the Coalition for Human Immigration Rights of Los Angeles.