First Employer Cited by INS for Newly Hired Illegal Aliens

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service took its first legal step Friday to enforce employer-sanction provisions of the new immigration law, issuing a citation against a San Gabriel Valley pool chemical supply company for employing newly hired illegal aliens.

Because the citation--the first issued in the nation by the INS--was only a warning, immigration officials declined to identify the firm. But Harold Ezell, INS Western regional director, said that future citations could lead to stiff fines and criminal cases against companies that violate the law.

“We want employers to understand their responsibilities under the law,” Ezell said. “We’re dead serious about making this law work.”

Stiff Penalties

The law requires virtually all employers to collect identification documents from workers hired since Nov. 6, 1986 (the day the immigration law became effective), and forbids employers from hiring illegal aliens after that date. Businesses that are found in violation of the law can be fined and repeated flagrant violators can be penalized up to $10,000 and imprisoned for up to six months for every illegal alien hired.

The citation comes just three weeks after the agency began enforcing the provisions for sanctions. The new enforcement activity has been criticized by immigrant advocate groups, which fear that frightened employers will begin wholesale firings of immigrant workers. Immigrant groups also say that the agency will damage its immigration amnesty program by sending mixed signals to immigrants--on the one hand, encouraging illegal aliens to register for legalization while on the other, stepping up raids that could send a new wave of aliens back to their homelands.

In the last three weeks, the INS has inspected at least eight firms in the Los Angeles area. Agents have also visited about 15,000 employers in Southern California since July to explain the law.

As the citation was being delivered Friday to the San Gabriel firm, Ezell and other agency officials accompanied about 30 INS agents on a raid at a Rancho Dominguez manufacturer of baby strollers and car seats. The agency decided on the raid after company officials refused to allow investigators into the plant last week to question workers.

Operation a Success

After entering with a warrant and questioning most of the firm’s 165 employees, the agents left without finding or arresting any illegal aliens. Ernest Gustafson, INS director for the Los Angeles district, said despite the lack of arrests, the operation was a success.

“We’re not looking for numbers,” he said. “We’re looking for cooperation.”

One company official said the firm had misunderstood earlier INS attempts to question workers and feared that the agents wanted to review the firm’s personnel files, which the agency can view only after obtaining a subpoeana. The official said the firm would allow INS agents to enter the plant on future visits.

The agency did make arrests recently when it questioned employees at the San Gabriel pool chemical firm that was cited on Friday. INS agent Don McDole said that immigration investigators arrested nine illegal aliens at the plant, including at least three new hires who were in violation of the sanctions provisions.

Gustafson said that because the 25-employee firm had cooperated by allowing the INS onto its grounds to talk to employees, the citation issued was only a warning.

“In future cases, if we conclude that a business is willfully violating the law, we can skip the warning and notify them that we intend to seek a fine,” Gustafson said.

INS officials have justified the stepped-up enforcement as the only way to reduce the record numbers of illegal aliens crossing the U.S. border to look for work. Last month, Border Patrol agents arrested an average 1,850 illegal aliens a week along the Western border, double the number arrested coming over the border in May.

“It’s important to send a message back to Mexico and other countries to let them know that this law has teeth,” said Nick Weyland, INS acting director of investigations for the Los Angeles district.

Immigrant advocate groups worry that the new raids send a different message to illegal aliens living in the United States who are trying to decide whether to apply for amnesty. “It will scare many immigrants,” said Linda Wong of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “How can they (INS) persuade immigrants that they want to help them if they are making raids and sending masses of people out of the country?”

Wong also suggested that some employers, intimidated by the immigration agency’s enforcement tactics, might fire any employees who do not have citizenship papers. Such indiscriminate firings could throw out of work hundreds of illegal aliens who are still waiting to apply for amnesty, Wong said.

INS officials insist that illegal aliens applying for amnesty will not be harmed by their enforcement efforts. Gustafson said that at least until Sept. 1--when all newly hired illegal aliens must apply for amnesty--the agency will not arrest any workers who claim that they intend to register for the program.