An estimated 1,600 Israelis residing in the United States have applied for legal status under the historic government amnesty program that ended Wednesday.
According to immigration and resettlement experts at American Jewish organizations, the Israelis are the only group of Jews expected to take part in the program in significant numbers.
But despite official support of immigration reform and the amnesty program, Jewish organizations have shown no support for the Israeli participants.
Most Jewish agencies “have not elected to become part of providing legalization services, because they did not want to be in a position of legalizing Israeli undocumented aliens,” said Gary Rubin, programming director of the American Jewish Committee. “They did not want a Jewish organizational presence in taking population away from the Israelis.”
The government’s amnesty program was open to all undocumented aliens who were able to prove that they had been in the United States continuously since Jan. 1, 1982.
Although the total number of those applying did not meet expectations for the program, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service was deluged with last-minute applications for amnesty.
One week before the deadline of the one-year program, INS officials announced that the government had received 1.3 million applications under the general legalization program and another 450,000 under a separate program for agricultural workers.
The overwhelming majority of applicants were Mexicans, although there were also large numbers of Asians, Poles and South and Central Americans adding to the mix.
JEWISH ORGANIZATION SUPPORT
Jewish organizations had been involved in the program from the beginning — supporting the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, calling for a further liberalization of its statutes and joining with other ethnic groups in lobbying for an extension of the amnesty program.
In Texas, for example, the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston supported a bill that called on Congress not to deport Salvadoran or Nicaraguan refugees, until the general accounting office assessed whether or not they were subject to political oppression at home.
The CRC also worked closely with the Central American Refugee Center in Houston, according to CRC director Art Abramson, and a local YM-YWHA has helped refugees seek amnesty.
In Chicago, officials at the HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) office chose to work locally with the Travellers and Immigrant Aid Society, as few Jews were approaching HIAS directly with inquiries about the amnesty program.
According to Sheldon Wykell, director of HIAS in Chicago, the agency “wrestled locally with what to do if Israelis were to approach” and ask for assistance in seeking amnesty.
“We reached a decision to deal with these problems if they arose,” said Wykell. They didn’t.
HIAS maintains an official hands-off policy toward Israeli residents. “It is longstanding board policy not to assist Israelis to leave Israel or adjust their status in the U.S. It has to do with how we view the Jewish state,” Karl Zukerman, HIAS executive vice president, said in New York.
Other organizations do not deal with Israeli immigration because of the nature of their programs. The New York Association of New Americans, for example, has a specific mandate to deal only with immigrants having refugee status.
SOVIET IMMIGRANTS UNAFFECTED
The amnesty program has not affected Soviet immigrants to any great degree. Jews coming out of the Soviet Union are eligible for refugee status, subject only to yearly quotas set by Congress. Until those quotas become more limiting, Soviet Jews have more to lose by entering the country illegally.
Because Jews are not being oppressed in Israel, explained Rubin of AJCommittee, Israelis need to meet the same immigration criteria of other immigrant groups. Rubin guessed that those applying represented a fraction of the Israelis actually living in the United States. Their numbers are notoriously hard to determine, and range from less than 200,000 to more than 300,000.
Rubin said that Israelis may not elect to take advantage of the program for many of the same reasons that other ethnic groups elect not to. Some refuse to trust the INS, despite its promise not to use the amnesty application to report illegal aliens. Or they may have concerns about families splitting up, whereby a husband or wife is accepted and the spouse is not.
But Israelis may have particular reasons as well, suggested Rubin. “In places like Rego Park (N.Y.) or Los Angeles, even undocumented Israelis fit in, are generally protected and realistically are not under great risk of being found out.”
In addition, said Rubin, “the Israeli population in general considers itself more than others a temporary population. The first generation always thought it was going back home. They really believe that no mater how long they live here they are going back to Israel. If true, there is no reason for them to legalize.”
And if they do, suggested Wykell of HIAS in Chicago, there are a number of reasons why the Jewish community might be the last to find out. “I think it’s a tribute to Jewish ingenuity. I think people are taking care of themselves.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
