INS Bargains for Firms’ Cooperation on Illegal Alien Workers

For two years, immigration officials bargained with the trainers at the Del Mar Race Track, asking them to help get rid of as many as 1,500 illegal alien workers. For two years, the trainers talked. And the illegal aliens stayed.

Twice, the immigration officials offered not to raid the track if the trainers would cooperate. Twice, the trainers agreed, then backed out. Finally, after repeated threats, the Border Patrol raided last week. By then, most of the workers had fled.

“I spent 25 years in the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and I don’t recall anything like it,” Neil H. Baxley, a San Diego immigration lawyer, said this week. “If someone is robbing a bank, a policeman doesn’t come in and say, ‘Quit it! Quit it! Quit it!’ ”

In theory, the deal the INS offered the trainers is available to any business suspected of employing illegal aliens. But in practice, INS officials say they haven’t the manpower to use it universally. So they end up promoting it in some cases, and not in others.

Some officials said they offer it to “notorious employers”--those with many illegal workers so that raids are especially disruptive and difficult to execute. Others promote it to big-name operations--those shy of publicity and interested in preserving their good name.

They insist they’re not discriminating against some employers in favor of others.

“This is like any service. Say you’re a cleaning establishment: You can only take so many customers,” said Allen Whurman, assistant district director for investigations for the San Diego office of the INS.

“It’s not a selective kind of deal,” said Harold Ezell, western regional commissioner for the INS. “You must understand that with limited resources, you’ve got to target those employers that are repeaters of the offense.”

Even when the deal is offered, officials say many employers are unwilling to go along.

Some 387 employers participate in all of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam, according to informal INS figures. Officials count 188 cooperating companies in Los Angeles, Orange and Kern counties, and nine in San Diego and Imperial counties.

“There’s not much motivation if they realize we have limited resources,” said Ezell, noting that companies know the INS cannot afford to raid them regularly. “They play the law of averages, I guess. That’s why there has to be immigration law reform.”

“Operation Cooperation” has existed for years, INS officials say, and immigration lawyers agree. In some areas, it has been available since the late 1970s, though Whurman said the San Diego office has used it primarily in the past two years.

Under the program, the INS abandons surprise raids if the employer allows the INS to come in and systematically check employees’ documentation. From then on, the company checks any newly hired aliens with the INS. In questionable cases, INS officials interview the employee.

The INS does not forgo raids. But it agrees to warn the company of its periodic “surveys.” Any illegal aliens turned up face deportation. Companies are asked not to rehire anyone who fails to show up for work on the day of the check.

“It’s done quickly, without any running, with everyone aware of what’s going on,” said Whurman, explaining the advantages to the employer. “Everyone is notified in advance, there’s no reason for fear. It’s a quiet, low-key operation.”

There are advantages for the INS, as well.

“Where you have truly large numbers, for the Border Patrol to mount an operation you’re talking about a major logistical problem,” said Peter N. Larrabee, a San Diego immigration lawyer. “Obviously, with the attendant publicity and in some cases the black eye they get from doing it, they would much prefer to accomplish their goals with some favorable publicity and without everything coming to a boil.”

Unfortunately, the program is labor intensive.

INS officials must go to the employer for the original survey, in large enough numbers to complete it swiftly. They must be available to check documentation when employers are hiring, and to return to the plant for scheduled surveys.

So Whurman and others said they offer Operation Cooperation when a raid would be especially difficult or disruptive, and where the INS has leverage over an employer. Because it involves a kind of honor system, they say they offer it to employers likely to act in good faith.

For example, it is difficult to raid sprawling high-technology firms, said Robert Moschorak , an associate regional INS commissioner. Raids in large office buildings and hotels are time-consuming and disruptive because of the manpower needed to find employees.

By contrast, raiding a strawberry field is simple because the workers are outside and in view. Ezell said many growers seem less eager than other employers to avoid a raid, perhaps because it is easier for them to replace deported workers.

The INS also promotes Operation Cooperation to larger, “more reputable organizations” wary of bad publicity, said Moschorak. “They don’t like reading about their organization in the newspapers,” he said. “That in and of itself is a deterrent.”

Also open to persuasion are big-name companies concerned about their product’s good name. “Those are the people that tend to bend over backwards to assist the INS,” Moschorak said, contrasting them with “a small concern where the guy could care less if anybody knows he has illegals.”

“It’s a matter of whether or not the impact of having immigration come in and remove your work force has any kind of bottom-line impact on your operation,” said Ezell. “It has not been my feeling that growers are that concerned. . . . We have more clout with the trainers, because there is a bottom-line effect.”

Some smaller employers complained this week that they had never heard of Operation Cooperation.

“They have never said, ‘Let’s sit down and work this out,’ ” grumbled one oft-raided San Diego employer who agreed to talk on the condition that he not be named. “ . . . How big do you have to be? How much taxes do you have to pay before you get a warning?”

Peter Mackauf, general manager of the Carlsbad Tomato Co., said his farm is raided regularly. But, when asked about Operation Cooperation, he said, “I’ve had nothing described as Operation Cooperation.”

According to Moschorak, 387 employers are participating in the program in the western region, and the INS received 1,575 requests for verification of employees’ status during July. Of those, he said 386 were found to be illegal. There was no record on 215 others.

In the Los Angeles district, which includes Los Angeles, Orange and Kern counties, approximately 188 companies take part, said Carol White, an INS investigator. In the San Diego district, including San Diego and Imperial counties, Whurman said nine companies take part.

Whurman declined to name the companies without their permission and said none had given permission as of late Tuesday. In Los Angeles, one industry group encouraging cooperation is the Coalition of Apparel Industries, which represents some 600 firms.

The coalition asked the INS for advice about a year ago, after repeated raids had disrupted firms’ production schedules. “Any time there’s a disruption in production, it’s deadly to us,” said Bernard Brown, the coalition’s chairman. “It’s not just a matter of saying, ‘Don’t bother us.’ It’s a matter of survival.”

Brown said the coalition has advised its members to enlist in the program and open their personnel files to the INS. Though he said those people he spoke with liked the idea, he said he did not know how many were actually taking part.

INS officials themselves admit that the idea may be more attractive than participation.

“A great number of employers agree that it’s a good idea. But then they say, ‘Is there any law against hiring illegal aliens?’ ” said Whurman. “So we have to tell them that at present there is no law. So they say, ‘Why should I do anything (about the illegal workers) if it’s not illegal?’ ”

In the end, most firms that hire illegal aliens are unwilling to cooperate, said Larrabee, who worked for 12 years for the INS and is now chairman of the San Diego County American Immigration Lawyers Assn.

“Those that tend to take part are those that basically have made the commitment to themselves,” he said. “Or, they have been able to work their business into a situation where they don’t have to rely on undocumented workers.”

Though the INS and the Del Mar trainers now talk of a new era of cooperation, what will happen at the track remains unclear.

Ezell remarked tentatively this week, “I’m hoping that the end result of that Del Mar thing will be a cooperative effort that will last--not just get through the season and worry about the INS next year.”