Supermarket Chain Is Fined $27,000 by INS

Federal authorities imposed a $27,000 fine against Big Bear supermarkets Tuesday for alleged paper-work violations of the 1986 immigration law. Big Bear operates 35 stores throughout San Diego and Imperial counties.

The firm’s president called the government’s action a “publicity stunt” and vowed to appeal. Big Bear has complied with the law, he contended.

Authorities said $27,000 is the largest of more than two dozen fines imposed to date nationwide under the sweeping “employer sanctions” provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

The fine also marks the first time a company had been charged even though its workers were in the United States legally, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Big Bear is accused of refusing to fill out the newly required immigration forms that every U.S. employer must maintain for each worker hired since Nov. 6, 1986, the day the new immigration statute was signed into law. The documents, known as I-9 forms, attest to employees’ eligibility to work in the United States; employers are required to ask workers for proof, such as Social Security cards, passports and visas, and note the numbers of such documents on the I-9 forms.

The idea is to limit illegal immigration by cutting off job opportunities.

Big Bear, which has more than 1,200 employees, was charged with 135 record-keeping violations covering all of its San Diego stores, the INS said.

In the cases of 132 employees, the INS said, Big Bear refused to maintain the immigration forms in accordance with the law; in three other cases the forms were filled out inadequately. All of the 135 workers are believed to be in the United States legally.

“Big Bear officials were provided every opportunity to comply with the law, yet they chose not to do so,” Harold Ezell, western regional commissioner for the INS, said at a San Diego press conference called to publicize the fine.

Official Calls Violations ‘Egregious’

The INS said its agents visited with Big Bear executives at least four times before imposing the fine. Dale W. Cozart, chief Border Patrol agent, termed the violations “egregious,” charging that Big Bear officials refused to cooperate.

But Larry Mabee, president of Big Bear, said the firm had maintained adequate paper work for every person named in the list of violations.

“I think it’s a publicity stunt,” said Mabee. “What bothers me most is that they’re picking on someone who is complying with the law.”

Replied Ezell: “If it’s just a publicity stunt, I’m sure we’ll be seeing him in court.”

Big Bear has 30 days to appeal the fine and request a hearing before an administrative law judge.

The supermarket chain is the ninth concern in San Diego County to be fined under the new immigration law. Those provisions provide civil and criminal penalties for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers and/or refuse to maintain the newly required paper work.

The INS said San Diego likely leads the nation in the number of such fines--a fact that is probably attributable to the fact that it houses the nation’s largest Border Patrol contingent, with more than 700 officers. In Los Angeles, where there are three times or more undocumented workers, INS officials have imposed fewer than half a dozen such fines, Ezell said.

Besides the firms already fined, the Border Patrol, an enforcement arm of the INS, is investigating 36 other San Diego employers who are also believed to be in violation. Countywide, Border Patrol agents have visited some 14,000 employers to inform them of the new law’s requirements, officials said. The great majority are cooperating, the Border Patrol said.

Even though Big Bear was not hiring undocumented workers, INS officials said it was necessary to send a message that the law’s paper work requirements will be enforced. “If we do not apply the law equally to everyone, then the law is ineffectual,” Cozart said.

Big Bear Supermarkets, a privately held corporation, began in Southeast San Diego in 1944 as Mabee’s Market, a mom-and-pop grocery founded by John and Betty Mabee, Larry’s parents. Mabee declined to provide sales figures.