Amnesty-Fee Thefts Have INS Chiefs Moving : Family Gets Boost, Official Apology

A Santa Ana couple whose amnesty applications languished after $5,000 in processing fees disappeared from a local immigration office got some help--and an apology--from the agency’s top regional official Tuesday.

“I want to apologize for the wrong thing that our people did for taking the money,” Harold Ezell, regional commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, told Jose Luis Garcia, his wife, Sonia, and their two daughters, Claudia and Sonia, through an interpreter at the INS legalization office in Santa Ana. “They don’t work for us anymore--they’re gone.”

‘Ponzi Scheme’

The Garcias’ check for $420, which they submitted along with their applications last October, was one of several that were stolen or diverted to cover other stolen checks in what Ezell called a “Ponzi scheme.”

The INS’s Office of Professional Responsibility and the U.S. attorney’s office have been investigating the disappearance and say that they have identified a former INS employee as the prime suspect, Los Angeles District Director Ernest E. Gustafson said in a press conference Tuesday. The man, whom Gustafson would not name, does not live in Orange County but is in “the Greater Los Angeles area,” Gustafson added.

“We’re hoping that in the next couple of weeks, an arrest warrant will be issued,” Ezell said.

In some cases, the suspect apparently took checks and money orders with no designated payee and filled in his own name before cashing them, Gustafson said. In other cases, the payee “INS” was expanded to a complete name, such as Smith or Sanchez.

About 35 amnesty applications had been held up because of the thefts and ongoing investigation, Ezell said, adding that the figure may be higher. The agency may be unaware of other cases because the applicants have not yet contacted the INS about long delays. “We’re going to have to get the word out,” Ezell said. “If someone hasn’t heard from us in 60 to 90 days after applying, then they should get in touch with us.”

Some of the 35 cases, including the Garcias’, were sent to the U.S. attorney’s office to assist investigators. INS officials told the Garcias that they could not process their applications and grant them work-authorization cards until the files were returned.

Orange County immigrant rights groups expressed concern to INS officials that the investigation was unnecessarily delaying innocent applicants’ receipt of work authorization and legal status.

Ezell said that after he read an article in The Times about the family’s plight last weekend, he called Gustafson and began working to solve the problem. The Garcias’ file was returned to Santa Ana on Tuesday, and they were walked through the first steps towards legalization--a brief interview, photographs and the issuance of the coveted plastic work-authorization cards--by Ezell and Gustafson. A final decision on their application is still several months away.

Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, illegal aliens who have lived in this country continuously since Jan. 1, 1982, and some farm workers who have lived here a shorter time, are eligible for temporary resident status, and, eventually, citizenship.

Applicants pay processing fees of $185 per adult and $50 per child, with a maximum of $420 per family.

“I was under the mistaken impression . . . that the files were still in the process of going through,” Ezell told the family. “We want to use you as an example to apologize for the mix-up. It’s not your fault.”

The Garcias, who came to Santa Ana from Mexicali in 1978, seemed nonplussed by the sudden, careful attention given their case. But they were happy, nonetheless.

“That was very fast,” Jose Luis Garcia said about the change in his situation. “We didn’t think it would happen today.”