INS Names Official to Handle Immigration Law Bias Cases

Harold Ezell, western regional director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, on Thursday named a 19-year INS official to the newly created post of director of fair employment to handle charges of employer discrimination under the new Immigration law.

Carlos Tellez Jr. will investigate complaints of job discrimination throughout California, Hawaii, Arizona and Nevada. Ezell, speaking to INS supervisors at a regional conference in Newport Beach, said the new position is part of the agency’s “pro-active approach in the anti-discrimination area of employment.”

Ezell told INS conferees of rumors that one San Francisco employer is firing workers solely because they are “Hispanic or foreign-looking in appearance.”

“If this is a problem, I want us to be set up to handle this,” Ezell said. We need a place where the complaints and referrals can come.”

Since 1981, Tellez has been stationed at the INS’ regional headquarters in San Pedro as the border patrol unit’s deputy chief, overseeing 1,800 agents working along the Mexican border.