INS Begins Yearlong Program to Provide Employers With Guidelines for Hiring

U.S. immigration officials announced Thursday an intensive yearlong effort to familiarize industry with guidelines on how to avoid sanctions for hiring illegal aliens.

Starting Tuesday, the Immigration and Naturalization Service will begin enforcing employer sanctions under the new immigration law. Almost half the agency’s investigative force will be mobilized to visit companies of all sizes nationwide as part of the education campaign, said Harold Ezell, the immigration service’s Western regional director.

“We’re not looking to bust employers. INS does not want to penalize employers unless there is an indication of knowingly hiring illegal aliens,” Ezell said at a Los Angeles news conference attended by a number of local business leaders and organizations that endorsed the campaign.

“It’s a nice dream to think we can contact every business,” Ezell said. Instead, the immigration service is relying on seminars, word of mouth and the media to orient those companies not personally contacted by agents, he said.

According to recent U.S. Census statistics, there are almost 200,000 businesses in Los Angeles County. Immigration officials have reached about 4,000 businesses, said William Carroll, assistant district director for Los Angeles investigations.

Deadline Postponed

Carroll said he expects immigration service agents to personally contact at least 20,000 more companies. More than 100,000 companies will be reached through the seminars, Carroll said. As many as 100 agents may be called into action, he said.

Under the immigration law, companies must verify that employees hired after Nov. 6, 1986, are U.S. citizens or aliens authorized to work. Enforcement was to go into effect on June 1, but the immigration service postponed the start date until July 1 under pressure from the U.S. Senate, which called on the agency to allow more time for education.

After July 1, the immigration service will issue a citation to a business only after the company has been briefed on the new law and has received an initial violation warning, said Ernest Gustafson, Los Angeles district director of the immigration service.

A graduated scale of sanctions will be imposed if the citation is ignored, Gustafson said. The sanctions include a sentence of up to six months in prison and a fine up to $10,000 for each illegal worker on an employer’s payroll.

According to some critics, the education campaign is occurring too late. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund has received more than 150 complaints of discrimination against workers during the last six months, said Linda Wong, the director of the fund’s immigrants’ civil rights program.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have already been hurt because of misunderstandings of the law,” Wong said in an interview. “It’s too little, too late.”