Consulates, schools strained by document requests from immigrants applying for Obama

http://m.washingtonpost.com/national...7bd_story.html


SAN DIEGO — Schools in Yakima, Wash., are taking nearly a month to deliver transcripts to former students. The Mexican consulate in Denver introduced Saturday hours last month after passport applications spiked by one-third. San Diego public schools added five employees in a new office to handle records requests.

Schools and consulates have been flooded with requests for documents after President Barack Obama announced a new program allowing young people living in the country illegally to apply for two-year renewable work permits. Up to 1.7 million people may qualify, which would be the broadest stroke to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows in more than 25 years. Applicants — some eager to get in line before November’s presidential elections — are finding they may have to wait a few weeks longer for a prize that has eluded them for years.

The clamor for documents is an early sign that the policy is highly popular. The Obama administration said this month that it approved the first 29 applications among more than 82,000 received since it began accepting requests Aug. 15.

The Mexican consulate in Los Angeles issued 17,444 passports and consular identification cards in August, up 63 percent from the same period last year, said Consul General David Figueroa, who attributes the entire increase to the new policy. The wait for a passport appointment at the largest Mexican consulate grew from one or two days to 40 days last month, then fell to 30 days after the consulate hired five employees to handle the increased workload, opened its main office on Saturdays and extended hours at satellite offices to seven days a week from five.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently clarified expectations, relieving applicants who worried they would need exhaustive proof of their whereabouts. Eligible applicants must have come to the U.S. before they turned 16, be 30 or younger, be high school graduates or in college, or have served in the military, and they cannot have serious criminal records. They also must have lived in the country since June 2007.

The new guidelines, issued Sept. 14, say applicants should provide as much evidence “as reasonably possible” that they stayed in the U.S. — ideally for every year — but that they don’t have to account for every day of the last five years.

The government also reassured employers who were nervous about providing evidence that they hired an illegal immigrant. Documents will not be used against employers unless they committed “egregious violations of criminal statues or widespread abuses.”

Laura Lichter, a Denver attorney and president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the new guidelines alleviated many concerns for applicants.

“I have to compliment (the government) for doing an excellent job of getting good, solid information out there,” said Lichter, adding that she rarely praises the authorities.

Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a critic of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, called the latest changes an example of how the Obama administration “routinely puts illegal immigrants first at the expense of the American people.”

“Administration officials intentionally made these guidelines vague enough so that potentially millions of illegal immigrants can qualify. And now the administration has revised their guidelines to be specific enough to protect unscrupulous employers from facing legal action for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants that have applied for the amnesty program,” he said.

Since July, transcript requests at Aurora Public Schools in suburban Denver jumped to 1,500, up by more than two-thirds compared to the same period last year. More than half of this year’s requests are tied to the new immigration policy.

The Yakima School District in central Washington state is taking nearly a month to produce transcripts, though college applicants go to the top of the pile and have to wait only two days, said Roy Knox, director of central registration, who planned to bring in a substitute teacher to help. Before the new immigration policy, transcripts were generally a same-day service.

Some campuses in Los Angeles Unified School District battled backlogs of 200 to 300 applicants, prompting administrators to create an online form this month that funnels applications to a central location, said Lydia Ramos, a special assistant to the superintendent. The district, which put workers on overtime to catch up, anticipates spending about $200,000 on the requests, including $15,000 for postage.

The Los Angeles school board, facing a backlog of 2,300 requests, ordered administrators this month to develop a plan that cuts waiting times from up to 45 days to seven days. It estimates 50,000 requests over the next few months.

San Diego Unified School District set up a temporary office and anticipates spending $45,000 on the effort through Dec. 14, said Linda Zintz, communications director. Between 80 and 100 people call or visit daily, but the office can only handle about 30 requests daily, creating waits of more than two weeks for an appointment with generally same-day service.

Abel Oregel, 29, called after attorneys for an advocacy group offered free advice on getting a permit. The opportunity comes 26 years after his parents took him across the border illegally on a mountain trek. The two-week wait for an appointment meant he wouldn’t have his documents for his next meeting with the attorneys.

“They told me they were really short on staff,” said Oregel, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, who has lived in Southern California since he was 3.

___

Associated Press writers Shannon Dininny in Yakima, Wash., and Ivan Moreno in Denver contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I don't see why the schools are taking so long. They can just print them out from the computer. But I understand the consulate.

I know right, it took me less than 10 minutes to get my middle school and high school transcripts.

People do everything last minute

You know us Mexicans always leave evrything til the end. lmao

School staff aren't know for being helpful. But I got my transcript in less than a minute. The same goes for consulate staff...(felt so out of place).

I went to my local consulate and gathered all my necessary documents within 3 days of the June 15, 2012 DACA announcement.

The Chicago Mexican Consulate is always packed, but when I went to update my current address to my consular ID, it took me about 21/2 hrs to do so. My brothers' elementary and middle school transcripts took about 1 week to get them in the mail.

Seriously though, it took my HS like 2 minutes to print out my transcript and immunization records. How are these requests getting backlogged??

I don't feel sympathy towards schools or consulates. Yes we've known since the 15th of June, so did they. They should have anticipated the amount of people that were going to run towards them and in the end I think some might even end up making money. And if they don't they never rejected those funds they received because all of us who attended their schools. Lol

At my brother's school we tried for over a month to get his school records along with his yearbook all because well they didn't feel like doing it, the registrar was rude towards us complaining that the school district should do something about this immigration policy cause they leave all the work to the schools blah blah blah. Then they give my brother a transcript that's not even signed O_O. Then they end up charging us $10 for the transcript and never gave us his elementary records (not necessary because he went before 2007 but still) And they only gave him his yearbook and transcript cause my mom had to go and set her straight. hahah

It depends on the school. My high school is like in a predominantly caucasian area and they gave me all my records so quickly on the same day and only charged me $2.

Then the mexican consulate omg don't get me started. I hope to never have to set foot in that hell hole ever again. I'd never felt so out of place in my entire life not even when I'm asked for a driver's license or ssn here.

We're just stimulating the economy as these things aren't free (at least Chicago Public School/college transcripts). Suck it teabaggers.