Salvadorans’ Asylum Deadline Nears : Policy: Immigrants must apply in 90 days or face sanctions.

Time is running out for tens of thousands of El Salvadoran immigrants in the Los Angeles area who must file political asylum claims soon to retain their legal status in the United States, community groups and U.S. immigration officials warned Tuesday.

Thousands of Salvadorans will lose their work permits this fall and become illegal immigrants--subject to loss of jobs and even deportation--if they fail to file applications.

“People have got to file as soon as possible or it’s going to be too late,” said Celia Grail, executive director of El Rescate, the Central American social service agency.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has vowed that there will be no mass deportations of Salvadorans. But fear of INS roundups has spread in many immigrant neighborhoods, particularly in the aftermath of the passage of Proposition 187 in California.

Activists said there is rampant confusion in the Salvadoran community resulting from a bewildering array of shifting deadlines and evolving programs since Congress first granted temporary protected status to Salvadorans in 1990. At the time, a bloody civil war was still raging in the Central American nation, prompting an exodus to Southern California and elsewhere.

U.S. protection of Salvadorans was later extended--even after the civil war ended in 1992.

But the Clinton Administration, taking heed of growing national hostility toward immigration, allowed Salvadorans’ protected status to expire last Dec. 31. To ease the blow, authorities extended until Sept. 30 the work permits of the 190,000 El Salvadorans believed to be covered under the expired program.

Most of those facing loss of their work permits are eligible to file asylum claims under the favorable terms of a 1991 federal court settlement. Eligible applicants are generally entitled to continued work permits, however tenuous their claims of asylum, until authorities complete reviews of their cases. That process is likely to drag on for years.

Although the INS could not provide exact numbers, officials acknowledge that many of the estimated 190,000 Salvadorans eligible for continued protection under the court settlement have yet to file for asylum. They must act soon if they hope to extend their work permits beyond the Sept. 30 deadline.

Official letters are likely to be sent in the next week or so, advising eligible Salvadorans to submit asylum claims under the settlement terms within 90 days, said Dan Kane, an INS spokesman. The INS has established a toll-free number, (800) 755-0777, for eligible applicants requesting forms and information.

Attorneys working with Salvadorans said it is unlikely that most would win political asylum, which requires that applicants demonstrate a “well-founded” fear of persecution if they return to their homeland. Instead, the hope is that many will win legal residence in immigration court by demonstrating extreme hardship if they are sent back to El Salvador.

Many affected Salvadorans have been in the United States for seven years or longer and have U.S.-born children. Few have any intention of returning to a still-unstable nation with an economy that was shattered during the civil war, which lasted more than a decade.

Neftali Martinez, a 24-year-old Los Angeles resident and former rebel collaborator in El Salvador, is among those applying for political asylum. Martinez says he fears retribution should he return. But he also worries about the lack of opportunity and the future of his two young daughters, both born in the United States.

“To pick up and go back now would be extremely difficult,” said Martinez, who came to the United States in 1988 and works as a security guard.

He was interviewed at the offices of the Assn. of Salvadorans of Los Angeles, an assistance organization in the city’s Pico-Union district, heart of the Central American community. Luis Hernandez, association coordinator, expressed concern that last-minute applicants would soon overwhelm his group and others assisting asylum applicants.