INS Suspends Factory Raids in Bay Area

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has suspended factory raids in the San Francisco Bay Area while officials decide whether to challenge a federal court ruling virtually prohibiting such mass sweeps, an INS spokesman said Tuesday.

Because of a temporary injunction issued last week, the INS in Northern California cannot enter workplaces to seek illegal aliens without a search warrant naming or describing individual suspects.

Until now, INS agents have been able to obtain warrants allowing them to “check anybody and everybody” at a company suspected of hiring illegal aliens, said Arthur Shanks, INS deputy district director in San Francisco.

Shanks added that the new ruling “puts a severe crimp in our operations.”

The attorneys who sought the injunction contend that the ruling merely requires compliance with Fourth Amendment guarantees against unreasonable search and seizure.