Race Track Now Employs Fewer Aliens, INS Boasts

U.S. immigration officials Monday proclaimed their efforts to crack down on the employment of illegal aliens at the race track here a resounding success and expressed hope that the program will spread to other industries that rely on undocumented workers.

Alan Nelson, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in Washington, said the agency’s drive to replace illegal backside workers with legal residents is “a true success story” and “an important precedent” in the campaign to curb the country’s dependence on undocumented laborers.

“We see a lot of accomplishments here at Del Mar and something that can be properly transferred and translated to other industries nationwide,” Nelson said at a race track press conference. “Through this (program) we are enforcing the law in an effective and humane way. Everybody is a winner here.”

Nelson and INS Western Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell cited restaurants, hotels and the garment industry as suitable for similar tactics. They said a pilot program known as LAW--for Legally Authorized Workers--may soon be tested in such industries.

“Discussions with organized labor, community groups and Hispanic organizations are under way,” Nelson said. “We think LAW has a lot of potential.”

But trainers’ representatives said that many horsemen feel bitter that the INS has spotlighted their industry in the increasingly high-profile campaign against illegal immigration. And they dispute the value of the training programs for replacement employees.

“Sure there are hard feelings, no doubt about it,” said Doug Atkins, secretary of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Assn. (HBPA). “There are a lot of trainers who aren’t too happy with this new system. But they accept it as a fact of life.”

Last year, the INS conducted a series of raids at Southern California race tracks, netting about 300 illegal workers and threatening future crackdowns if trainers did not attempt to hire U.S. citizens for backside jobs. At Del Mar, trainers boycotted racing for a day after INS agents seized 123 aliens and prompted hundreds more to flee their positions as grooms, exercise riders and hot-walkers.

In the aftermath of the raids, the HBPA, which represents thoroughbred owners and trainers, struck a compromise with federal authorities, agreeing to participate in a special temporary worker program.

The so-called H-2 program--patterned after a system that permits foreign athletes and entertainers to work in the United States--allows foreign workers to receive visas enabling them to work for nine months at the Del Mar, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park tracks. Federal authorities expressed hope that the H-2 program will be equally successful at the upcoming race meet at Santa Anita, in Arcadia.

Under the program, the INS issued 363 temporary work visas for use at Southern California tracks. In return, the trainers agreed to gradually curtail their reliance on illegal aliens and recruit and train U.S. citizens or legal residents for track jobs. To accomplish that, the HBPA set up two-week training schools to prepare laymen for backside work. Wages range from $237 a week to $275 a week for grooms, while exercise riders are paid slightly more.

On Monday, all parties announced that the H-2 program and enforcement efforts by track officials and U.S. Border Patrol agents had all but eliminated the use of illegal workers at Del Mar.

Alan Eliason, Border Patrol chief for the San Diego region, said that only 20 aliens were seized during the 1986 race meet at Del Mar, which ends Wednesday, and maintained that “we got all of them, give or take one or two.”

Eliason said that the screening of job applicants, random inspections by his agents and the use of validation coupons that track owners now issue each employee combined to discourage many aliens from even applying for work. Others were arrested during the application process.

“Last year, Del Mar was the largest single concentration of illegal employment in San Diego County,” Eliason said. “We had numerous complaints from American citizens who wanted to work (at the track) and were told no.”

Now, Eliason said, “those people have got their chance.”

Last year, the Border Patrol estimated 1,200 track positions were occupied by illegal aliens. Eliason said those jobs were filled this season by about 300 H-2 workers, plus graduates of the HBPA’s training program and other legal residents. HBPA spokesmen estimated that the total number of workers at the track had dropped by about one-third this season, primarily because the track is still having trouble finding qualified workers.

Joe Harper, general manager of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, which runs the race season, confirmed the INS account: “I imagine a few (aliens) slipped over the fence and worked some of the less-skilled jobs, but you’d be surprised. That backstretch is a different place.”

Although pleased with the success of the H-2 program, INS officials conceded that ultimately their goal is to replace all foreign track workers with U.S. citizens.

“We intend to . . . eliminate the program entirely by 1988 since the racing industry will have had three years by then to recruit and train legal U.S. residents,” Ezell said.

Still, he added, a transition period is necessary, because “you just don’t find a trained groom or exercise rider walking down Escondido Boulevard.” Consequently, the INS has agreed to renew 300 of the 363 H-2 visas issued in January.

In addition, the INS has expanded the H-2 program to include “auxiliary facilities” such as the San Luis Rey Downs training center east of Bonsall. Previously, such facilities were exempt and occasionally were raided by the INS. But in response to a request by the HBPA, which argued that such centers are an integral part of the racing industry, immigration authorities have agreed to issue 125 temporary work visas for use specifically at those training tracks.

Despite the upbeat tone of the press conference, Atkins and other HBPA spokesmen complain that the task of finding qualified Americans willing to take backside jobs on a long-term basis remains a problem.

“We’ve spent over $100,000 on our training program just this first year--in advertisements and other costs,” said Charles Prawdzik, general counsel for the HBPA. “What’s it got us? At Del Mar, about 85 people placed in jobs.”

Prawdzik added that few of the newly trained workers have the skills of their illegal predecessors.

“You can teach a person the basics in two weeks, but you can’t teach them to feel comfortable working in and under and around horses,” Prawdzik said, adding that a proposal is afoot to lengthen the school to two months. “Many of the Latin workers we had were born around horses. They grew up with them. It’s hard to duplicate that.”

Moreover, the alien workers had other assets as well. Because their homes were south of the border, they lived at the track 24 hours a day.

“They had no family ties, no commitments, no limitations on hours,” Prawdzik said. “It’s different with the legal residents. They are not as mobile, not as willing to move from track to track.

“In the future, the backstretch will be a much different sort of world.”