Employers Trip on Amnesty Law Bias Provision

With the amnesty program for illegal aliens thundering to a close, a less-known provision of the immigration reform law is emerging as a source of potential legal liability for employers in Southern California and other regions with large ethnic populations.

In recent weeks, the Justice Department has charged three major Southland firms with flouting the portion of the law intended to prevent wholesale job discrimination against Latinos and foreign-born workers.

A new investigative agency set up under the immigration law has accused Northrop, Farmers Insurance and Southwest Marine of firing or refusing to hire Latinos even though the workers held legitimate employment authorizations from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Among First in Nation

The civil complaints--which could subject the firms to fines, back-pay orders and other penalties if upheld by an administrative law judge--are among the first in the nation brought by Lawrence J. Siskind, the Justice Department’s special counsel for immigration-related unfair employment practices.

However, some immigration rights advocates, while applauding recent decisions by Siskind that have expanded the scope of the law’s protection, remain concerned that the special counsel’s office is continuing to drag its feet in investigating bias allegations. Siskind has filed formal complaints in just five of the 119 cases investigated since the office was established last year.

“That suggests to me there’s a great deal of caution--and probably an excess of caution--being exercised in how aggressively this legislation is being enforced,” said John T. Nockleby, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles.

Latino groups campaigned to include the anti-bias provisions in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act as a counterweight to the law’s employer sanctions. They were concerned that companies would refuse to hire Latinos and other foreign-appearing workers rather than run the risk of employing illegal aliens and being subjected to immigration service raids and fines.

The employment rights of several groups of aliens are guaranteed by the law. They include refugees, persons granted political asylum, permanent residents and aliens who have applied for or obtained temporary residence under the immigration act’s amnesty program, which expired Wednesday.

In general, the law prohibits employers from hiring only U.S. citizens. The special counsel’s office can initiate investigations on its own or respond to workers’ inquiries. If it declines to file a formal complaint, workers can file on their own.

“It makes no sense to say to these aliens, ‘You can become citizens as long as you’re financially responsible,’ and then turn around and permit discrimination against them in employment,” Siskind said.

Charges Against Northrop

The most serious charges in the cases brought against Southland firms involve Northrop, one of the state’s 10 largest private employers. The aerospace company, cited for violations at its Hawthorne plant last month, was the only one of the area employers charged with engaging in a pattern of discrimination against aliens.

Though some projects at the facility--including the Air Force’s Advanced Tactical Fighter and the Navy’s F-18 Hornet fighter plane--operate under security provisions that limit employment to U.S. citizens or permanent residents, the Justice Department contends that Northrop has illegally barred aliens from other areas.

In two related complaints, Siskind charged that Northrop directed its maintenance contractors last year to fire Elina Lopez and Gualterio Junco-Neninger from their jobs as janitors at the plant. Both workers are Cuban-born refugees and had documents authorizing them to work legally in the United States. But at the time they were fired, neither held a “green card,” the work document given to permanent resident aliens.

A Northrop spokesman said Wednesday that the company has been told by government officials that there is an unresolved conflict between the anti-bias law and longstanding State Department security regulations that it says require it to restrict employment throughout the plant to citizens and permanent residents. Until the conflict is resolved, the spokesman said, Northrop will abide by the State Department standards.

Siskind, however, said his investigation has determined that there are no grounds for restricting employment in non-secure portions of the Hawthorne facility.

Insurance Agent’s Job

In the case against Farmers, the special counsel charged that the Los Angeles-based insurance company’s Lancaster office refused to consider Jorge E. Ruiz-Lopez for a job as an insurance agent because he was not a citizen. Ruiz-Lopez, a native of Colombia, entered the United States legally in 1981 and has been a green card holder since 1985.

According to Nockleby, who has represented Ruiz-Lopez in the case, Farmers reached a settlement with the special counsel’s office in which the company promised to abide by the anti-discrimination law. But lawyers for MALDEF and the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights have asked an administrative law judge to overturn the settlement, contending that it fails to penalize Farmers adequately or to guarantee the company’s compliance with the law.

A Farmers spokesman said Wednesday that the company has never had a policy of employing only citizens. “This situation relates to an independent agent who chose, having no directive from Farmers, not to hire someone and used the excuse that this person was not an American citizen,” the spokesman said.

San Diego-based Southwest Marine is accused of illegally delaying the recall of Jose S. Miranda to his job as a rigger at its San Pedro shipyard after a layoff last year.

Called Back in December

Siskind charged last month that the Peruvian-born Miranda, a five-year employee of the company who has been a permanent resident alien since 1970, had been told by Southwest Marine officials after he was laid off that only U.S. citizens could work for the company. Nonetheless, he was called back to work in December.

Michael Adams, director of human resources and personnel for the firm, said Southwest Marine does not have a policy of hiring only citizens and intends to fight the Justice Department complaint.