Salvadorans Fearful of INS Registration : Immigration: People here illegally have until Thursday to seek temporary residency, but efforts to persuade sign-ups are hampered by distrust of authority.

Efforts by a coalition to persuade illegal Salvadoran immigrants to register for temporary residency before the Thursday deadline are being crippled by distrust and fear of government bureaucracy, officials said Friday.

About 40,000 of an estimated 48,000 eligible Salvadoran immigrants in the county have not registered for protection, according to Lilia Powell, director of the Orange County Coalition for Immigrants Rights and Responsibilities.

Many of the immigrants, some of whom have fled the civil war in El Salvador, are concerned that the registration program may actually be used against them. Under terms of the program, immigrants are given the choice of registering for up to 18 months at a cost of $250 per person or facing possible deportation.

“There are Salvadorans who are skeptical about the program because they think it is a way to get a list of people they can deport in the future,” said George Abbes, an Anaheim-based immigration lawyer.

Under the Immigration Reformation and Control Act, illegal immigrants who have been in the country since Sept. 19, 1990, are eligible to attain temporary legal status for periods of six months at a time, not to exceed a total of 18 months with renewals. Those not registered after Oct. 31 or who fail to renew registrations would be subject to deportation.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get yourself registered and not have to look over your shoulder for immigration authorities everyday for a year and a half,” said Robert Moschorak, Immigration and Naturalization Service district director in Los Angeles. “People have asked what will happen in 18 months (when temporary protection expires) and we say, ‘Nothing is for sure in life . . . so take this opportunity.”

Still, skepticism among immigrants continues to run high, even among those whose registrations are up for renewal.

Of the 6,000 Salvadoran immigrants in Southern California who registered for protection earlier this year, only 1,500 have renewed their registrations in the required six months, according to coalition statistics. The registration procedure requires immigrants to complete applications which require photographs and fingerprint cards.

“It really is a desperate situation,” said Ramon Quintanilla, legalization director for the Center for Employment Training in Santa Ana.

Quintanilla said the temporary protection program is really a vehicle to delay deportation.

“After 18 months, you can apply for political asylum,” Quintanilla said. “It is really difficult to get it, but (applying) is . . . another way to delay the process.”

Typically, appeals for asylum can take years before decisions are made, immigration officials say. In all cases, immigrants must prove they would be politically persecuted upon their return.

“We will find them (immigrants) any way we can,” Powell said. “We have held picnics and events in hopes of helping them fill out forms and get translations of the list of community centers to register.”

The coalition has also established a hot line to assist immigrants in applying for temporary protection. The hot line is staffed by Spanish-speaking coalition members at (714) 547-5746.