Immigration Advisers Issue Alert on ‘Family Fairness’
Representatives of several Los Angeles immigrant groups cautioned illegal immigrants about rushing to apply for temporary U.S. residency under the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s new “family fairness” policy.
Under pressure from Latino groups and Congress, INS Commissioner Gene McNary on Feb. 2 announced a policy allowing close relatives of legalized aliens to remain in the United States while they wait to qualify for permanent status.
While they voice general support for the gesture, immigrants’ representatives said the policy has serious flaws. For example, they said, the confidentiality aspect of the amnesty law, which was required by Congress as a condition of its passage, is not part of the policy, which took effect Feb. 14. The lack of confidentiality could lead some applicants to deportation, they warned.
Teresa Sanchez-Gordon of the Labor Immigrant Assistance Project and other immigrant advocates urged aliens to wait for INS clarifications before applying for temporary residency under the liberalized policy.
Nonetheless, the activists said, the benefits of the policy--keeping an amnesty applicant’s immediate family together, the authorization for work for adults and the access to Social Security benefits for minors--should outweigh its negative aspects for most applicants.
The policy provides for a renewable, one-year authorization to live in this country for amnesty applicants’ spouses and children under the age of 18 who can prove that they have lived in the United States since before Nov. 6, 1986--the date the landmark amnesty legislation became law.
J Craig Fong, director of the Downtown Legalization Project, said aliens who receive public assistance, minor children who were outside the United States at the time the parent applied for amnesty and those illegal immigrants with physical or mental disabilities are ineligible to apply.
“This also doesn’t pertain to late amnesty” registrants whose cases are being contested by the INS in the courts, Fong said.
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