Visa Compromise on Aliens : INS Keeps Eye Peeled as Del Mar Races Start

The stables at Del Mar Race Track were filled with activity Wednesday morning, as the horses were walked, bathed and brushed in preparation for opening day. Despite the foreboding presence of two Immigration and Naturalization Service agents at the entrance to the employment office, activities on the track’s “backside” were progressing on schedule, according to several horse trainers.

“Everything is going without a hitch,” said track spokesman Dan Smith, the opening day turnout of 27,000 was believed to be the second largest in the track’s history.

Last year, a day of racing was canceled after the INS raided the backstretch, taking into custody 123 illegal aliens working as grooms and hot-walkers, and causing an estimated 600 others to flee.

On Wednesday, federal agents checked identification papers of every worker who came to the track and took several illegal aliens into custody. The INS said it would continue the vigil for the rest of the season.

But if there were undocumented workers at the track Wednesday, no one was admitting it.

“It’s been a bit of a battle, but we’re making do,” said John Fulton, a trainer with about 25 horses. Behind him several horses were walking round and round on the automatic horse walker, while another was being hosed and soaped by a worker.

“Of course we managed to get some in under the H-2 visas; without that we’d be in a lot of trouble,” he said.

Under a compromise worked out last fall between the INS and the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Assn., the INS has issued 363 of the so-called H-2 visas, allowing foreigners to work legally at specified tasks.

While spokesmen for both the INS and the trainers are stressing the “cooperative atmosphere” that has been achieved this season, interviews with individual trainers indicated that underlying tension between the two groups has not disappeared.

One cause of concern is the H-2 program--which was initially created for entertainers and professional athletes. The visas will expire in October, and so far the INS has not indicated if they will be reissued.

The HBPA has applied for visas for an additional 250 foreign workers, and the INS said that a decision on these applications will be reached soon.

The trainers maintain that the foreign workers--drawn from Mexico, El Salvador and other Latin American countries--are essential due to a shortage of qualified animal handlers in Southern California.

“The foreign people who work here, they all grew up on farms and ranches; they’ve been around horses all their lives. There are very, very few people who have those sort of skills in the area,” trainer Eddie Truman said.

“Taking someone off the street and putting them with the horses is like taking some guy off the unemployment line and making him a trainer for the Padres; it just isn’t gonna work out.”

But the INS believes that all the employment needs of the track can be met with American workers.

“I think they can find all the workers they need if the working conditions are reasonably pleasant. These are skills that can be learned; you’re not born with them,” INS spokesman Ed Pyeatt said.

“There’s an awful lot of young ladies in Southern California, and I know some of them myself, who are absolutely crazy about horses. I think they should take advantage of that,” he added.

Eventually, he said, the INS expects the trainers to replace “all workers who are not absolutely necessary” with U.S. citizens. Asked how many that would be, Pyeatt said, “That’s for the Department of Labor to determine.”

Before last summer’s crackdown, as many as 1,500 illegal aliens may have been employed at the track, according to the INS.

In order to speed the conversion to an American work force, the HBPA has set up a one-week crash course in horse-handling skills. Since May, 220 people have completed the course--which is offered free of charge--and 70% of those are still working at the track, according to instructor Clay Potter.

“We’re getting all types of people: transients, businessmen, surfers, farmers. A lot of people just seem to be bored with what they’re doing and are looking for something new,” Potter said.

Potter, who climbed the ladder of equine occupations himself--from hot-walker, to groom, to pony boy, to assistant trainer--says that the business is much easier for outsiders to break into today. “I just wish I’d had a break like this held out to me; you really had to kill yourself back when I was starting,” he said.

But some of the trainers said that American workers simply can’t keep up with the foreigners. “They’ll come to work for one week and then after the first payday, the Americans will be off on a drunk somewhere and just never come back,” said one worker who declined to give her name.

“We’ve had a lot of trouble keeping them,” Fulton confirmed. “Once the romance wears off, they just up and leave.”

“When you ask someone to step into the stable after a week or two, it just doesn’t work out,” he added. “It’s dangerous for the horse and for the guy who’s handling him.” Several horses have broken away from inexperienced handlers, he said.

Another trainer, who declined to give his name, accused the INS of selective enforcement. “You don’t see them bothering the Europeans who work at the track,” he said. “The Mexicans are the only ones who are willing to do work like this. The Americans, they’d just as soon go on welfare before they do any hard work.”

But Potter disputed the stereotype of the finicky American worker.

“We have one barn that is run entirely by people who have come out of the course and they’re finishing up sooner than anybody,” he said. “You’ve got lazy people from every country in the world.”

One cause of the lack of enthusiasm of U.S. workers may be the relatively low wages and strange hours of those who care for the horses. Hot-walkers, the lowest position in the stables’ hierarchy, make minimum wage and must begin work at 5 a.m. Although some hot-walkers manage to hold down a second job, the number of hours worked varies from day to day, making this difficult.

Thus far, trainers have resisted the idea of raising the wages that are paid to the handlers in order to draw American workers. “It’s the same job they’re doing this year as last year. Why should the wages go up?” Truman asked.

In addition, the trainers periodically move from one track to another, forcing many to live in the rather crowded worker housing at the track. While being surrounded by the smell of manure and the whinnies of horses 24 hours a day may appeal to some, it is anathema to others.

“It’s almost like a carnival. Moving all the time can be exciting, but it takes you out of the mainstream of society,” Fulton said.