INS Knew of Voter Sign-Ups, Workers Say

Two Immigration and Naturalization Service employees have alleged in written statements submitted to Congress that INS supervisors were aware that private agencies have been assisting noncitizens to register to vote--a charge disputed Wednesday by INS management.

In an interview, one of the employees, Rosa Arauz, said it was common practice for private groups to assist would-be citizens in filling out voter registration cards after applicants’ INS interviews--still well before the swearing-in that formally bestows citizenship status. Arauz, who said she did not know when or if the forms were turned in to county registrars, said she complained about the agencies’ practices to her supervisor, but was told “it was none of my business.”

INS management says it has found no indication that its personnel suspected that noncitizens were registering to vote. Nor have officials unearthed evidence that INS management ignored such allegations, said Richard K. Rogers, the INS district director in Los Angeles.

“This is new to us,” said Rogers, who heads a seven-county INS district that is the nation’s busiest.

The allegations come as state and local officials investigating possible voter fraud have focused on the activities of the Santa Ana office of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Latino rights group that ran an active citizenship sign-up campaign and voter registration drive. Hermandad is one of the agencies where Arauz said she saw workers assisting noncitizens with voter registration forms. Officials of Hermandad have denied any wrongdoing.

Triggering the voter fraud inquiry was a complaint by former Rep. Robert K. Dornan, the veteran Republican legislator who was unseated in November by Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), a political neophyte, in one of the year’s most heralded political upsets.

James Humble-Sanchez, an INS special agent and self-styled whistle-blower who assembled the statements from INS employees, said copies of the documents had been provided to Dornan’s office.

As the disclosures have sparked increased scrutiny, longtime advocates for greater immigrant political participation have voiced fears that the episode could taint a historic 1996 turnout of Latino voters--and even discourage some people from becoming citizens and registering to vote.

“We’re obviously concerned about any irregularities, but the bottom line is that there were record numbers of people who became citizens and who legitimately voted in this election, and that gets lost by focusing on some minuscule number of problems,” said Vibiana Andrade, national director of immigrants’ rights with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The statements by INS employees were prepared by Humble-Sanchez for use by the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, which has been investigating the Clinton administration’s Citizenship USA initiative.

The stepped-up national citizenship program has recorded a record number of citizen sign-ups--an unprecedented 1.3 million nationwide last year--but GOP lawmakers have attacked the effort as a partisan blueprint to cut corners and drum up votes for Democrats. The Clinton administration has defended the process.

In total, Humble-Sanchez compiled critical statements from three INS employees who worked on the citizenship program in Southern California. All three are assigned to the INS Bellflower office, which dispatches examiners to interview citizenship applicants at sites organized by nonprofit agencies such as Hermandad Mexicana.

The so-called outreach interviews for citizenship applicants have become an important part of the process in Southern California, accounting for about 17% of the more than 450,000 citizenship interviews last year. The remainder of interviews are done at INS offices.

All three INS employees complained that the volume of citizenship interviews scheduled each day made it difficult, if not impossible, to determine with precision if applicants qualified under the naturalization laws. But only two--Arauz, a clerk, and an examiner who asked that his name be withheld for fear of retribution--said they had witnessed recent evidence of activists assisting noncitizens to file voter registration cards.

In the interview, Arauz said she observed noncitizens being assisted with voter registration forms at various nonprofit sites, including the Hermandad Mexicana site in Santa Ana.

Officials of Hermandad have acknowledged that some noncitizens taking classes at the organization cast ballots before they were sworn in. But Hermandad attributed the problem to misunderstandings and people’s eagerness to vote.

Typically, Arauz said, community workers would aid citizenship applicants with registration forms after the would-be citizens passed their INS interviews. “It happened all the time,” said Arauz, a nine-year INS veteran.

However, Arauz acknowledged she did not know if the completed registration forms were submitted immediately to county registrars of voters or were held until the applicants were officially citizens--at which point they were entitled to register. Under state law, only citizens may register to vote and cast ballots.

In her statement, Arauz alleged that her objections prompted her supervisor to solicit complaints against her from neighborhood agencies involved in the citizenship sign-up. As a result, she said she was labeled a “disgruntled employee.”

However, Consuelo Valdez, who helped run a neighborhood-based citizenship effort called Active Citizenship Campaign, said she filed a complaint against Arauz because she was “rude” and disrespectful to applicants. Valdez said applicants were always told they could not register to vote until they were sworn in as citizens.

Active Citizenship Campaign received about $100,000 in donations from the Times Mirror Foundation during 1995-96, said Lisa Cleri Reale, foundation vice president.

A second INS employee in Bellflower, who asked through Humble-Sanchez that his name not be used and declined to be interviewed, alleged in his statement that “management has specific knowledge that numerous outreach sites are registering noncitizens [to vote] at the time of the interviews.” He said he had seen correspondence on the matter directed to Jane Arellano, assistant INS district director.

Arellano, in a telephone conference interview with other INS officials, echoed the agency’s position that management knew nothing of allegations of registration improprieties until the issue hit the press. “We never heard of any kinds of improper activities,” said Rosemary Melville, deputy INS director in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, at the Santa Ana offices of Hermandad Mexicana, where law enforcement authorities seized computers and records Tuesday, workers struggled to deal with the usual flow of immigrants seeking assistance. “We have to be ready to work even longer hours than we used to,” said Hermandad spokesman Jay Lindsey. “But we’re not going to turn anyone away.”

Times staff writers Esther Schrader and H.G. Reza contributed to this story.