INS Plan Aims at Fraud in Farm-Worker Amnesty

U.S. immigration authorities unveiled a plan Wednesday to clamp down on what they called “massive” fraud in the farm-worker amnesty program in San Diego County and throughout California.

The plan, which has already engendered controversy, includes the use of red-telephone “hot lines” to verify documents, the videotaping of interviews with amnesty applicants and the bolstering of anti-fraud review staffs.

Federal officials disagree with critics who say that the videotapes, intended to dissuade phony applicants, could frighten legitimate amnesty seekers.

‘Not Going to Roll Over’

“We’re not going to roll over and let fraud be perpetrated on . . . the American people,” said Harold Ezell, Western regional commissioner for the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, who spoke at a San Diego news conference.

About 120,000 farm-worker applications in the four-state Western region are under review because of indications of fraud, he said.

Ezell’s comments reflect the agency’s growing concern about fraud and the unexpected number of applications submitted under the farm-worker program, the application period for which expires Nov. 30. Officials expected to receive up to 500,000 applications overall, but it now appears that more than 1 million people will apply nationwide. About 40,000 have already applied in San Diego County.

Although not condoning fraud, immigrants’ rights groups are concerned about the videotaping, which INS officials say will be used only on an occasional basis and should not dissuade valid applicants.

“Tapes are extremely intimidating,” said Roberto Martinez, a Chicano activist who works with migrants in San Diego and is affiliated with the Quaker Church. “The whole process is already intimidating enough, even without videotapes.”

But James Turnage, INS district director in San Diego, countered: “We are here to help the bona fide applicant.”

In recent weeks, officials said, INS examiners in San Diego and elsewhere in California have been recommending denial of 65% or more of all farm-worker amnesty applications, largely because applicants have submitted fraudulent documents. The instance of fraud has risen dramatically as the deadline nears, officials say.

The general amnesty program, which raised the possibility of legal status for illegal aliens who had lived in the United States since 1982, had an overall rejection rate of about 2%, according to the INS. About 1.7 million people nationwide applied for amnesty under that program; its one-year application period expired May 4.

The farm-worker initiative, instituted at the insistence of Western growers who feared losing their work force, was crafted with an 18-month application period and more liberal requirements than the general amnesty program, a fact that the INS says accounts for the higher incidence of fraud. In order to qualify, field laborers need only show that they worked 90 days in U. S. agriculture during a recent one-year period.

INS officials report being inundated with false and forged documents from farmers and agricultural-labor contractors, purporting to show that workers met the 90-day requirement. There have been a number of successful prosecutions, including the case of a National City notary public who was recently sentenced to five years in prison for fraudulent immigration practices.