Alien Camps Called ‘Worst Exploitation’

Close on the heels of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach) scrambled up a dusty slope and knelt in the doorway of a makeshift cardboard hut on the edge of a tomato field here.

Thrusting a flashlight into a narrow, 4-foot-deep cave dug just inside the entrance of the flimsy lean-to, Lungren bent forward and peered inside.

“Oh my God,” the congressman murmured as the yellow beam scanned the tiny space, illuminating a tube of toothpaste, a Bible and a wedge of Styrofoam that apparently served as a mattress. “This is staggering. Does someone sleep in here?”

The Border Patrol agent, his tanned and lined face evidence of many a day spent prowling the canyons and fields of North County, kicked the dirt with his black boot and smiled: “Probably five or six people. Lying flat. Side by side.”

For seven years, Dan Lungren, like any other self-respecting conservative Republican, has supported immigration reform. For the first time Friday, he completely understood why.

Touring two squalid villages of caves and primitive hooches that house scores of illegal aliens employed in the area’s agricultural fields, Lungren declared the families forced to live there “the true victims of our country’s failure to enact sensible, enforceable immigration reform.

“People tell me that stopping the tide of illegals coming over the border and enacting a guest worker program instead would exploit the Mexican workers,” Lungren said as he stood amid a cluster of the crudely fashioned shelters.

“Well, I challenge any of them to come down here, take a look at this filth and tell me this isn’t exploitation at its worst.”

Lungren, 38, added that while he knew “the conditions were bad, I don’t think anybody, certainly not anybody in Congress, was aware it was this bad. We would never tolerate such conditions for our own citizens.”

Later, at a press conference in San Diego, the congressman described what he had seen as “stuff that would turn your stomach” but noted that short of comprehensive immigration reform, attempts to remedy the situation would be “like putting a Band-Aid on a cancer sore.

“You could have the INS go in more often and break up the camps, but they’ll tell you they can build them up faster than they can break them down,” Lungren said.

Elaborating on an earlier theme, Lungren said that because they are in the country illegally, Mexican farm workers are easy victims of exploitation. If they were working under an organized, legal guest program, he said, they could command the attention of authorities if they are abused by landlords or employers.

Addressing a related topic, the recent INS raid at the Del Mar Race Track, Lungren condemned the horse racing industry for its reliance on illegal workers and questioned trainers’ arguments they had to rely on the aliens because Americans won’t fill the jobs.

“We have million dollar horses,” said the congressman, whose district encompasses the Los Alamitos Race Course. “It’s not unreasonable to ask that the people be paid a decent wage.”

Considered one of the Reagan Administration’s most loyal supporters in Congress, Lungren said he has worked for immigration reform since 1978, when he was first elected to represent portions of coastal Los Angeles and Orange counties.

He was an avid supporter of the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration bill that became mired in controversy and died last year, and is the senior Republican on the House subcommittee on immigration.

In February, seeking to revive congressional interest in immigration reform, Lungren introduced a measure similar to the original legislation by Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Romano L. Mazzoli (D-Ky.).

Known as the Comprehensive Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1985, Lungren’s bill would impose penalties on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, and would offer amnesty to illegal workers who can prove they entered the U.S. before Jan. 1, 1980. The amnesty date is stricter than that set in the Simpson-Mazzoli bill, which required workers to prove residency before Jan. 1, 1982.

Debate on Lungren’s legislation is scheduled to begin in the House subcommittee on immigration Monday. Following his tour Friday, the congressman told reporters he believes there is “a slightly better than 50-50 chance” that a reform bill will pass this session.

Lungren said he requested the tour of the shanties and caves that dot the rural North County landscape to become better acquainted with the problem and to “raise consciousness” about the wretched conditions. The journey was clearly more than he had bargained for.

Clad in shiny brown penny loafers and an army-green Border Patrol jump suit, pulled snugly over blue double-knit slacks, Lungren arrived by helicopter in rural Oceanside in mid-afternoon. He was quickly whisked into a waiting van, which sped off into North County’s agricultural heartland, leaving a bevy of reporters struggling to follow through a cloud of dust.

Although uniformed Border Patrol agents escorted Lungren on the tour, no arrests were made. Nonetheless, nervous field workers could be seen scurrying into ditches and over ridges as the familiar green-and-white vehicle piloted by la migra came into view.

Throughout the inspection, Lungren saw neighborhoods most North County residents never see. He saw rodent-infested caves--also known as “spider holes”--no more than two feet in diameter that serve as sleeping quarters.

He saw algae-smothered ponds of chemically tainted runoff water that serve as laundry and bathing sites. He saw makeshift kitchens--complete with cucumbers and zucchini hanging on strings from the ceiling--and regulation-sized, dirt basketball courts.

He walked past one cardboard door, pulled tightly shut, that bore a clumsy cross, hand-lettered in red crayon. And he saw what passes for sanitary facilities in the villages--an open dirt area not 200 yards from the huts. Even the congressman’s cologne could not dilute the smell.

“All this, only a stone’s throw from condominiums on the beach,” Lungren mused.

During the tour, Lungren said little. But he did listen intently as Border Patrol agents explained how aliens brace a cave with wooden lattice work and then camouflage the entrance with brush; or how they dig holes in cave walls to hold candles; or how they tap into irrigation pipes to siphon off drinking water.

After examining one particularly narrow dwelling, Lungren stood, sighed and said, “This is pure hell.”