Marcos Dinner for INS Officials Probed

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is conducting a preliminary inquiry to determine if any impropriety was involved when INS Western Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell and other top officials were feted last August at the Honolulu home of former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The dinner, which was attended by both Marcos and his wife, Imelda, took place Aug. 3. At the time, the U.S. Department of Justice--which oversees the INS--was investigating the deposed Philippine first family in connection with charges that they diverted Philippine government funds to purchase millions of dollars worth of New York real estate. A federal grand jury in New York indicted the couple in connection with the alleged scheme last month.

Considerable Embarrassment

Several Justice Department officials, speaking privately, said there was considerable embarrassment about the dinner after word about it drifted back to Washington last month. Nonetheless, authorities said it appeared that no laws or regulations were broken. At the time of the dinner, officials noted, the INS was not itself investigating the Marcoses, there was no question about their immigration status and the couple had not been charged with any crime.

Duke Austin, an INS spokesman in Washington, said Wednesday that the service’s internal affairs unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility, “was aware of the dinner and (officials) were looking into it peripherally to see if it would warrant an investigation.” Austin stressed that the inquiry into the dinner was preliminary.

Ezell and other INS officials who attended the three-hour gathering minimized the dinner’s importance and said no business was discussed with the Marcoses, who were allowed to enter the United States legally in February, 1986, along with an entourage of more than 90 supporters. They described the dinner as an informal social occasion, arranged by a number of Filipino-American businessmen who wished to express their appreciation to the INS for past assistance.

More than a dozen top INS officials--including Ezell, Los Angeles District Director Ernest Gustafson, San Diego District Director James Turnage, and Dale W. Cozart, chief Border Patrol agent in San Diego--were in Honolulu at the time for a weeklong management meeting and attended the dinner, officials said.

‘Not an Enemy’

“It was really an uneventful kind of deal,” Ezell said during an interview here Wednesday. “There was no discussion of his (Marcos’) future.

“Mr. Marcos is not an enemy of the United States,” said Ezell, who has been known for his provocative comments during his five years as chief of the INS’ Western region, which includes California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam. “We’re talking like he’s an enemy; he was invited by the President to come to America.”

Unaware of Inquiry

Although the Justice Department investigation of the Marcoses had been widely publicized before August, Ezell and William Craig, the INS district director in Honolulu, said they were unaware of the inquiry when they accepted the invitation. Craig, a 32-year veteran of the INS, said he cleared the dinner with service officials in Washington, although he declined to name the officials. Ezell said he agreed to go after Craig assured him that Washington had cleared the event.

The dinner was attended by more than 100 people, including the Marcos family, federal and local officials and a large contingent of Filipino-Americans. The businessmen, not Marcos, picked up the tab for the dinner, according to Craig.