Negotiations on Illegals at Race Track Break Down

Negotiations between U.S. immigration officials and Del Mar Race Track trainers broke down late Wednesday, and authorities vowed that they will conduct a raid within days to arrest hundreds of illegal aliens who work on “the backside” at the track.

Meanwhile, the illegal aliens were apparently continuing to abandon the track, where they both live and work--an exodus that threatens to disrupt the track’s schedule as trainers scramble to find legal replacements for the grooms and hot-walkers.

“We are in possession of a warrant (to conduct a raid) and we have nine more days to get up there,” said Ed Pyeatt, spokesman for the Border Patrol, the enforcement arm of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. “Our only option is to serve that warrant.”

Pyeatt said that negotiations between immigration officials and Del Mar trainers, which have been going on for days, broke down after a four-hour session Wednesday when the two sides could not agree on how soon to correct the illegal-alien problem at the track.

“We needed something in the short term,” Pyeatt said. “Worrying about it next year was basically what they (trainers) had in mind.” The current racing meeting ends Sept. 11.

Officials of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Assn., the trainers’ representatives, were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Pyeatt said that, at the least, immigration officials wanted to continue the program they instituted at the track last week, when they arrested 32 illegal aliens after interviewing 60 grooms and hot-walkers. The arrests came after the officials checked work permits of employees to see who was not legally in the United States.

Trainers have resisted that tactic, arguing that immigration officials will scare off enough illegal workers to cripple the track’s operation.

“What we were doing is taking human beings who have worked for us for years--taking care of the horses, sending money home--and turning them over to get them out of here,” said Danny Velasquez, a trainer who said he employs about a dozen assistants, some of whom are illegal aliens.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t work something out, continue with the meetings. . . . It’s obvious we won’t have enough people here” to operate a full schedule of races.

Velasquez said that he attempted to hire seven legal workers to replace employees he expected to lose by the threat of a raid, but only four had showed up for work.

Track general manager Joe Harper acknowledged that a drive by trainers to hire new people with proper working permits has had mixed results so far.

“It’s difficult to (hire) a groom off the street,” he said. “The ones that have never been around a horse before are going to be very surprised when you hand them a high-spirited thoroughbred.”

Harper declined to speculate Wednesday on whether a major raid would disrupt the track’s schedule, although earlier he conceded the possibility. Estimates of the number of illegal aliens on the backside have ranged from 800 to 1,500, which immigration officials have said is the largest concentration in San Diego County.

The dispute between Del Mar trainers and immigration officials may yield some good, Harper added. The problem, he said, has been thoroughly discussed and “we’re going to see a positive start toward getting these workers documented. This is not a Del Mar problem. This is an industry problem.”

Pyeatt of the Border Patrol said agents had raided other race tracks, notably San Luis Rey Downs, and will continue to do so, even if the aliens elude arrest by leaving their jobs.

“They’ll still be in the country,” Pyeatt said, “but if we begin by taking away their jobs, that’s something.”