San Diego Tops U.S. in Fines Against Employers of Illegal Aliens

More than one year after U.S. immigration officials began enforcing a 1986 law that makes it unlawful for employers to hire undocumented workers, the San Diego area leads the nation by far in the number of firms fined for violations, according to statistics released Thursday.

In the San Diego area, 23 firms were fined a total of $90,750 during the first year of the program, which began June 1, 1987. That number represents almost half the fines imposed in the INS’ Western region, which includes all of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam. By contrast, officials fined just four Los Angeles-area employers, assessing them penalties totaling $8,300.

Although Los Angeles is believed to have many times the undocumented population of San Diego, perhaps 10 times as much, Harold Ezell, the INS’ Western regional commissioner, said officials in Los Angeles have been concentrating on the law’s amnesty portion and are just now beginning to emphasize legal sanctions against employers.

“You will see a lot more fines coming of Los Angeles in the next 30 to 60 days,” Ezell said at a San Diego news conference.

A key factor in the high number of fines in San Diego is the fact that the area has the nation’s single largest U.S. Border Patrol contingent, about 800 agents who have been actively enforcing the new law. The patrol is a uniformed enforcement arm of the INS. Although employers in cities such as Los Angeles or San Francisco might be concerned about visits from INS inspectors, they don’t face the specter of widespread Border Patrol raids.

Ezell said INS officials are investigating about 800 employers in the Western region, including 180 in the San Diego area, for possible violations. On Thursday, fines totaling $4,000 were levied against three more San Diego-area firms--the Baja Lobster Restaurant ($750) in National City; the Berg Building ($2,000) in Ramona; and Pro Window Cleaning ($1,250) in Jamul.

Fined employers have a right to hearings before administrative law judges.

U.S. immigration officials warned Thursday that they are cracking down on violators.

“The honeymoon is over for those employers who don’t get the message,” Ezell said.

As of this June 1, officials began fining first-time offenders, who before then had just received warnings. The law provides for fines of up to $10,000 and jail terms of up to six months for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers.

The so-called employer-sanction provisions are considered the cornerstone of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which was designed to cut down on the widespread illegal entry into the United States, mostly by impoverished job-seekers from Mexico and elsewhere in the Third World.

The law also created new paper-work requirements for all U.S. employers, who now must ask prospective workers to show documents demonstrating their legal status in the United States. Not adhering to the paper-work requirements is itself a violation.

Officials say they expect the number of fines nationwide to gradually increase, particularly since the law also provides funds for an expanded INS enforcement staff. The INS is doubling the number of investigators nationwide, to 1,700, and increasing Border Patrol staff by a quarter, to 4,200 nationwide.

“However,” said INS commissioner Alan Nelson, who appeared alongside Ezell, “it is still our intention to encourage employer cooperation and compliance, rather than seeking to collect penalties.”

Authorities maintain that most employers are voluntarily complying with the law.