Latinos Say INS Raids Are Political Moves : Regional Director Accused of Aiming for Stricter Laws

Orange County Latinos on Friday accused the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s top West Coast official of ordering recent immigration raids as a “lobbying effort” to raise support for stricter immigration laws.

Harold Ezell, regional director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, has abused his position to stimulate support for immi-gration reform bills now before Congress, said Nativo Lopez, speaking for several Latino organizations at a news conference in Santa Ana.

“What he (Ezell) is doing is conducting raids to help, in his own words, create awareness. We think it’s a violation of the civil service law and his role as regional director,” Lopez said.

An INS spokesman denied that the regional director had abused his authority.

“In fact, just the opposite is true,” spokesman Joseph Flanders said. “He’s (Ezell’s) been trying to stimulate public awareness, yes, but these operations that you have seen are based solely on complaints by business people and residents in the area.”

Ezell Not Reachable

Ezell could not be reached for comment.

(In Washington Friday, dispute over an amnesty plan for foreign farm workers all but killed chances of action this year on an immigration bill that would have provided financial penalties and imprisonment for employers who hired illegal aliens. The bill also would have granted amnesty to those who entered illegally but who had established roots in this country over a number of years.)

According to the latest tally, about 675 persons suspected of being illegal aliens have been taken into custody recently by immigration agents during seven street operations in Stanton, Orange, Santa Ana, Laguna Beach, Dana Point and Costa Mesa.

On Thursday, in the fourth Orange County raid in eight days, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended 143 suspected illegal aliens during an early-morning sweep along Euclid Avenue in Santa Ana. Several Orange County Transit District buses were stopped to apprehend fleeing suspects, immigration authorities said.

Father Edward Poettgen, a Catholic priest from La Habra, said Ezell’s use of human beings as part of a lobbying effort, “was not moral.”

“To be used as cannon fodder so Ezell can fire his cannon to change laws is not a moral way to lobby for legislation,” Poettgen said.

Poettgen, an associate pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, said he intends to pray Saturday and Sunday for forgiveness for a “system that uses people to gain political action.”

INS spokesman Flanders rejected Poettgen’s characterization. He said the recent raids were not intended as lobbying tools but as a response to appeals from the public.

He said businessmen and local citizens had complained about Orange County’s unorthodox hiring halls, essentially street corners that attract hundreds of Latinos seeking work on a daily basis.

Lopez suggested that instead of apprehending laborers, the INS should streamline naturalization guidelines to decrease a backlog of immigrants, especially those from Mexico, wishing to become legal residents.

“That would help stop the INS from harassing these hard workers,” he said.

Lopez noted that among those apprehended during the raids was a pregnant woman who turned out to be a legal resident. She was removed from a bus, taken to San Clemente, then returned to Santa Ana after it was verified that she was in the country legally, he said.

“It shows that INS was boarding buses and apprehending people without probable cause but picking out people based on color of skin and style of dress,” Lopez said.

The INS has said that agents boarded buses only to apprehend illegal aliens who have fled during raids.

House action Friday killed the 1986 immigration reform bill. Part I, Page 1.