Hermandad Revelations Prompt Change by INS

In response to revelations that noncitizens voted in the Nov. 5 election, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is adding language to a letter to prospective citizens that clarifies they are not citizens until they attend a swearing-in ceremony.

INS District Director Richard Rogers, whose Los Angeles office oversees 10 counties including Orange County, also said he has suspended a relationship between the INS and Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a regional Latino rights group that might have signed up noncitizens to vote while they were taking citizenship classes there.

No longer will INS officers conduct citizenship interviews at Hermandad offices in Santa Ana and at two Los Angeles locations, Rogers said. Nearly two years ago, the agency began conducting the interviews at Hermandad to help deal with an overwhelming number of new citizens.

Hermandad issued a statement Tuesday saying it is conducting an internal investigation and will provide legal counsel to any members who are contacted by the INS or the district attorney’s office.

“Hermandad Mexicana Nacional takes these allegations very seriously,” the statement said. It added: “It has never been the policy or practice of HMN to condone, promote or encourage anyone to vote before they have completed the entire citizenship process.”

Nineteen people have told The Times they were registered at the Hermandad offices prior to becoming citizens and voted in the November election--a felony that could result in prosecution and deportation.

Rogers said the INS is cooperating with the Orange County district attorney’s office in investigating noncitizen voting in the past election, including the race in which Loretta Sanchez defeated Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) by 984 votes.

“There is a sufficient amount of information that there was solicitation going on [at Hermandad offices],” said Rogers, who would not comment on specifics of the investigation. “As a precautionary measure, I determined not to continue the interviews.”

Rogers said the suspension of INS interviews at Hermandad offices will affect 600 to 700 people in January alone. All interviews will be rescheduled to INS offices in Bellflower, and the applicants will be notified by mail, he said.

Under a law that took affect in September, Rogers said, any organization that knowingly registers noncitizens to vote could be charged with a felony. Any investigation of such a violation would probably be conducted jointly by the FBI and the INS, he said.

Hermandad employees might have also violated the elections code by failing to complete a section of the voter registration form required of a third party who assists a prospective voter in registering.

State law requires that anyone who assists a voter in filling out a registration card or who collects it from a voter must sign the card and identify himself by address and phone number. Penalties vary from an infraction to a misdemeanor for failing to fill out the so-called “Box 13” on the form.

That information was omitted from a registration card turned in for at least one Santa Ana woman, who said she had filled out the voter portion of the form in early September at Hermandad headquarters in Santa Ana. It was the same day she completed an interview with the INS, which was held there. The Santa Ana woman said a woman took the form from her and gave her a receipt.

The registration card was delivered to the registrar’s office in late September, according to registrar records. A copy of the card, made available by the registrar, shows Box 13 as blank.

Rogers of the INS said his agency still has plans to prosecute any citizenship applicants who knowingly registered or voted before they were sworn in. He said the agency would investigate those who were sworn in during the past two months since the election, and that INS officers will now ask all prospective citizens in interviews whether they voted.

Several new citizens and noncitizens said they were confused about the point at which an applicant becomes a citizen, and that they thought the naturalization ceremony was a formality.

After passing the INS interview, all prospective citizens were handed a letter that begins: “Congratulations! Your application for naturalization has been approved. To complete the naturalization process, you must now take the oath of allegiance before a judge of the United States District Court.”

The letter ends, “Once again, congratulations on passing your citizenship interview.”

Rogers said the letter and INS officers who conducted the interview made clear that citizenship begins during the swearing in. “We try our best with the letter and with an explanation to indicate [when citizenship begins],” he said. “But there’s always a possibility that somebody could have misunderstood.”

“We’re going to add a phrase. It will probably say something direct like, ‘You’re not a citizen yet,” Rogers said.

About 10,000 legal residents attended citizenship classes through Hermandad Mexicana Nacional last year, and 15,000 are expected this year, said Nativo Lopez, director of the organization. Hermandad also ran an energetic voter registration drive and get-out-the-vote effort in the months before the November election.

Lopez, who has long been a controversial figure in Santa Ana politics, won a seat on the Santa Ana Unified School District board in November. He said in interviews that he kept his political activities separate from those of Hermandad, which is a nonprofit organization and receives state and federal funds.

In a newspaper it publishes, Hermandad urged anyone contacted by reporters or investigators to refer the caller to Hermandad. Hermandad Mexicana Nacional is Spanish for National Mexican Brotherhood.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Letter of the Law

The Immigration and Naturalization Service plans to change the wording of its letters to those who have passed citizenship classes, making it clear that just because they have passed the test, that does not make them citizens and they cannot vote. A copy of the current letter: