INS Finds Most Employers Obey Law : But Other Studies Show Wider Flouting of New Immigration Statute

Federal immigration officials said Tuesday that a recent survey found that “an overwhelming majority” of employers in Southern California are complying with the new immigration law.

But the survey, which comes as part of a nationwide assessment by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the effect of sanctions, in effect 10 months, conflicts with studies by other groups, including the U. S. Department of Labor and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, that have found significantly lower levels of compliance.

Under sanctions provisions adopted by Congress in November, 1986, as part of a sweeping new immigration law, employers face stiff fines and civil and criminal penalties for hiring illegal aliens.

73% Complying

Harold Ezell, INS Western regional commissioner, said at a Los Angeles press conference that during the survey, conducted in February and March, immigration agents found that 73% of the businesses they visited were complying with the law.

“This result makes it quite apparent that employers understand and are finding it easy to voluntarily comply with the law,” he said.

During the survey, immigration officials contacted 158 businesses in Los Angeles and four adjacent counties, visiting 63 of those firms. Five warning citations, which could eventually lead to fines, resulted from the visits. The firms were randomly selected by INS computers in Washington.

On Monday, INS officials said the results in Los Angeles were similar to those found among employers in San Diego and elsewhere in the West.

Compliance Questioned

Despite the INS comments, however, separate studies issued earlier this year called into question employers’ acceptance of the new immigration law.

The Department of Labor, which monitors the same workplace hiring records the INS often checks, reported in January that responses from 9,000 employers nationwide showed one-third in “full compliance,” another one-third in partial compliance and a final third either ignoring the sanctions, unaware of them or actively in violation.

Similarly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found last year that 57% of 2,000 employer respondents were complying in some degree. But follow-up interviews of employers who said they were following the law have showed that many were, in fact, not complying, according to the chamber’s labor relations specialist, Virginia Thomas.

“We found that when asked personally, they backed away from their position and it turned out they weren’t complying,” Thomas said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, INS officials in San Diego predicted this week that apprehensions of illegal aliens in the border area should drop substantially once the employers sanctions provisions are in effect for agricultural concerns. Arrests of undocumented foreigners rose by more than 10% in the first three months of 1988 compared to the same period in 1987. The immigration law exempted farms and other agricultural employers until until Dec. 1, 1988.

“People migrating to the Western region are destined for agricultural work,” said Dale Cozart, San Diego chief patrol agent. “About six to eight months after sanctions are enforced in the agricultural area, we should see a drop.”

Times staff writer Barbara Valois in San Diego contributed to this story.