Immigrants rush to beat law’s deadline

Stacy J. Willis

Friday, April 27, 2001 | 4:33 a.m.

Just married, Graciela Sevilla is wearing jeans and a UNLV T-shirt and standing in a line of Latinos that stretches halfway around the INS building.

Sweat is beading on her forehead; she fans herself with a handful of Immigration and Naturalization Service documents.

"I don't know exactly what they are," she says of the forms. "But I know they will make me a legal resident, finalmente."

Sevilla, 23, is one of thousands of immigrants who have stood in line at the local INS branch in recent months. They want to take advantage of a temporary law that allows illegal immigrants to apply for legal status if they pay a $1,000 penalty and file a petition from a citizen spouse or relative.

The law went into effect Dec. 21 and expires Monday.

The short window of opportunity has created a boon for Las Vegas' wedding industry as thousands of couples -- one partner legal, one illegal -- tie the knot to qualify for legal status.

The Clark County Marriage License Bureau issued a record 12,395 licenses last month; in December it issued fewer than 9,000.

"It is directly attributable to the immigration law," Cheryl Vernon, Marriage License Bureau supervisor, said. "Business is way up."

The law arose as a congressional compromise last year. Although some lawmakers pushed for wider liberalization of immigration laws, conservatives could only be persuaded to support this measure, known as the "245-I," if it were temporary.

"The basic philosophy (behind) all immigration law is family unification," Las Vegas immigration attorney Julia Osborne said. "But another motivation for the law is financial. At $1,000 per application, it is a way for the INS to generate more income."

By local accounts, the INS is understaffed and underfunded.

In a strip-mall law office across from the crowded INS building on Pecos Road, legal assistant Bill Anderson flips through INS schedules, shaking his head.

"Here it is," he says, pointing to a paper. "Right now the INS is processing applications for legal status that were filed in October of 1994. That's a 6 1/2-year wait."

Because of the whims of politicians and sludge of bureaucracy, already-complex immigration laws change periodically, but leave a cumbersome agency and a slew of immigrants struggling to keep up.

Between 1998 and December 2000, illegal immigrants were not eligible to apply for legal status without returning to their native countries to do so. And when the law expires Monday, illegal residents will again need to return home to apply.

But there are two bills in Congress that would extend 245-I's provisions. One would extend it through November and another would extend it indefinitely.

To best capitalize on the temporary law, an illegal immigrant would marry a U.S. citizen, file the appropriate papers by midnight Monday, and move to the front of the processing line.

Wedding bells

Accordingly, wedding bells are ringing double-time in Las Vegas.

At the Little White Wedding Chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard, the Rev. Charlotte Richards is spending her spring reading from a Spanish wedding script.

"Every day we have a lot of Spanish-speaking people here who want to hurry up and get married because of the law -- big time," Richards said. "One couple even had me write a letter to the INS explaining that they had made reservations to be married before the deadline, and that the bride would be flying in from out of the country soon."

Some of her clients are locals and others have driven in from California or Arizona, she said.

"A lot of them are walk-ins, but some will call up and say, 'Can we do it now? Today?' and I tell them they have to go ... get a license. An hour later they are here with their license," Richards said.

"They don't ask for limousine service, they don't want a dress, they don't want flowers, they just want the matrimonial," Richards said. Her chapel charges $40 for a drive-through ceremony and $55 for an indoor ceremony.

"It's nice to see them so happy afterward," Richards said. "They are relieved."

Less relieved are INS employees, who are slumped over stacks of incoming documents at the valley's only INS office.

In November the office received and processed 45 applications for "adjustment of legal status" under the temporary law.

By March that had climbed to 173 -- and the office was backlogged with 1,558 applications that were marked "received" but had yet to be processed.

"We're swamped," INS Supervisory District Adjudication Officer Kathy Banos said. "We're getting down to the nitty-gritty here. We'll probably stay open until midnight on Monday."

Checking on fraud

Banos said the investigation of potentially fraudulent marriages will be conducted later -- after interviews with new couples have been scheduled. "At this point we're just trying to see that the applications are properly filled in and signed," Banos said.

During personal interviews with the couples, the federal agency will look for telltale signs of fraud: age disparity, odd body language between husband and wife, lack of shared bank accounts or bills.

Already Osborne said she has had some "questionable" couples come into her office.

"I had someone actually come in and say, 'We are just going to get married to get the papers,' " Osborne said. "So of course I told them I could not do that, and I sent them off.

"I don't encourage people to go out and pick up a chick on the street. Most of the relationships I've seen are solid marriages," Osborne said.

Sevilla, a Mexican who declined to say how she got into the United States, said she had been planning to marry her boyfriend for months before the law took effect.

"I was with my boyfriend a long time," she said. "And it was time to get married anyway. So we just went to the court (to marry) this morning."

Sevilla's new husband is a U.S. citizen who filled out an INS petition on her behalf.

Anderson said he has fielded only a few marriage-of-convenience inquiries amid dozens of valid solicitations.

"But one woman called me and asked, 'If I get married to a U.S. citizen, do we have to live together?' " Anderson, who has been in the business more than 10 years, said.

"If it's obviously fraudulent like that, then we don't do the work. But if it's just my suspicion, who am I to judge?" he said.

"Las Vegas is a magnet for immigrants because of employment opportunities," Anderson said. "It's easy to buy a green card (work permit) and a Social Security card for $100 at any swap meet." The 2000 Census showed a dramatic increase in the Hispanic population -- both legal and illegal -- in the valley

"And the INS knows that. Everyone knows that. But we also know that if we took all of the illegal aliens out of Las Vegas at one time, we would roll up (the city) and die," Anderson said. "They are a big part of the work force here."

Evidence of the document-filing frenzy stands out all over the Hispanic community in Las Vegas. Storefront abogados and notarias -- lawyers and notaries -- have posted window placards: "Special for April 30 Deadline," and Spanish-language newspapers boast articles about the ins and outs of the filing process.

Because of the labyrinthine nature of INS rules -- rules that require different processes for those marrying legal-resident immigrants versus those marrying U.S. citizens, different processes for those who arrived in the United States before December versus those who arrived after -- many immigrants are seeking help.

In an immigration attorney's office near Charleston Boulevard and Main Street, a lobby full of would-be legal residents -- men in work boots and women with infants -- awaited their turn for assistance one recent afternoon.

"There has been a lot of misunderstanding about this law," Anderson said. "A lot of confusion. Some have been misguided by incompetent or fraudulent attorneys, too."

Those who seek professional help with the documents are paying fees ranging from $40 to upward of $1,000 on top of their INS fees.

Relief

Jorge Fuentes, 22, paid more than $2,500 -- including INS and attorney's fees -- to process his spousal petition, an application for adjustment of his legal status and a request for employment authorization.

"It was hard to get the money," Fuentes, who has been working illegally in the United States, said. "But I knew I had to do it."

Fuentes' name has been changed in this article because he fears he will lose his job or be deported before his paperwork goes through the INS.

His story is common among many who are taking advantage of the law.

When he was 11, Fuentes piled into a car with his mother and some neighbors and left his home in Camora, Mexico. Several hours later they crossed into the United States on his mother's visa.

After a brief stay in California, they moved to Las Vegas, where his mother worked for a small company building aluminum frames for windows.

"I didn't want to leave. I got used to it here in Las Vegas," Fuentes, who never became a legal resident, said.

When he came of age and began to envision his adult life, he realized he would need to become legal to build a career and travel without the fear of deportation.

"So I decided to do it the right way. To do it the legal way," he said.

"I left to go back to Mexico two years ago, to try to get a visa and come back legally." Fuentes said. But after staying in Mexico for seven months, his visa application was denied.

"It was hard," he said. "I was very disappointed."

Fuentes slipped back across the border, returned to Las Vegas and continued to live a life in which he was constantly looking over his shoulder wondering if he would lose his job or be sent back to Mexico.

And then, he says, he fell in love.

"We decided to get married last year just because we wanted to get married," he said. "She was pregnant already, and then I heard about the law and I said, 'This is our opportunity.' "

Fuentes and his wife, a U.S. citizen, filed forms with the INS in March.

Banos said that even for those with all of the right documents, legal status won't be immediate.

"Realistically, it will take between 12 and 18 months from the time you file to get your interview and adjust your status," Banos said. "We're working as fast as we can."

Fuentes said he was prepared to wait.

"It's worth it," he said. "Absolutely."

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