Immigrant activists Tuesday hailed a federal judge’s decision to increase the number of welfare recipients eligible for amnesty saying that as many as 25,000 illegal immigrants in the Los Angeles area may now apply for temporary residence in this country.

On Monday, U’S, District Judge Edward J. Garcia in Sacramento ruled that Immigration and Naturalization Service regulations prohibiting welfare recipients and others who received public assistance from applying for amnesty were unconstitutional. He expanded a ruling he made last year allowing eligibility for welfare recipients whose applications ‘were rejected by the INS to those. aliens who were discouraged by word of mouth from applying.

The judge ordered INS officials to accept amnesty applications beginning August 10th for the rest of this year from eligible aliens.

“It’s a significant decision that reopens the amnesty process to many undocumented who were rejected for amnesty attorney Vibjana Andrade of the National center for Immigrant Refights in Los Angeles said at a news conference.

Susan Alva a lawyer with the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles added. “Even those who receive SSI (state disability insurance) were rejected for amnesty.”

Under the landmark Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, illegal aliens who lived in the United States prior to Jan 1, 1982, were eligible for amnesty and legal residency. About 3 million aliens nationwide signed up for amnesty during the application period that ended May 4, 1988.

Among those declared ineligible for amnesty were welfare recipients who the INS said could not apply because they were receiving public funds to live illegally in this country.

The agency retreated from that position after it was sued by immigrant activists, who argued that the INS had unjustly denied amnesty for as many as 50,000 aliens in the western United States.

Typical of the plight facing these aliens activists said, was that of Emerita Rodriquez a 33 year old mother of two from Honduras who has been prevented from being legally employed because she has not applied for amnesty.

“I didn’t even bother to apply because many told me I couldn’t qualify because I was on welfare,” she said in Spanish at the news conference. “I want amnesty so I can get a job. Who wants to come to this country to be unemployed? T didn’t.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 18, 1989