INS Raids 2 Hotels, Arrests 32 Workers

Two days before the start of the busy Memorial Day weekend, U.S. immigration agents arrested 32 undocumented workers Wednesday in raids at two large Mission Bay hotels.

Officials said the apprehensions at the jointly owned Bahia and Catamaran Resort hotels were routine, except that the presence of 80 agents was required to seal off escape routes on the hotels’ sprawling grounds. The operation began with a 9 a.m. muster at an armory in National City, authorities said.

The simultaneous raids at the two hotels, which began at about 11 a.m., went off largely without incident, according to federal authorities, although one unidentified Bahia employee, a U. S. citizen, was arrested for assaulting an officer.

James Turnage, district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said an effort was made to minimize interference with hotel operations. The need for a large-scale raid, Turnage said, was precipitated by the hotel’s management’s “flagrant disregard” for recently enacted laws outlawing the hiring of undocumented labor. Agents entered the premises with a federal court warrant.

Protocol Chief Involved

Anne L. Evans, proprietor of the two family-owned hotels, accused the INS of “heavy-handed” and disruptive tactics that included the kicking in of two doors at the Bahia. She said hotel officials had cooperated with the INS.

“The policy of the hotels is to verify to the best of our ability that persons working for us are eligible to do so,” said Evans, who is one of two chiefs of protocol for the city of San Diego and who was at the Bahia when the arresting officers arrived. “We have no wish to circumvent the law.”

An INS official said at least one door at the Bahia had to be opened forcibly when hotel officials refused to provide a pass key.

U. S. authorities are likely to propose a hefty fine on management of the two hotels, although the amount to be assessed has yet to be determined, said Turnage, the top INS official in San Diego.

The sweeping reforms of U. S. immigration laws enacted in 1986 created a range of civil and criminal fines and potential jail terms for employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. San Diego, home to more than 1,000 employees of the INS and the U. S. Border Patrol, a uniformed arm of the INS, has led the nation in the number of such fines.

On March 16, officials said, agents detained 14 undocumented workers at the Bahia.

Subsequent inspections indicated numerous violations, said Rudy Murillo, an INS spokesman in San Diego. Last month, Murillo said, the agency filed a subpoena seeking the hotels’ payroll records. The documents have yet to be turned over, said Murillo, who noted that authorities plan to go to U. S. District Court to enforce the subpoena.

Low-Paying Jobs

Many hotels in California and elsewhere have traditionally relied on immigrant labor to fill low-paying jobs.

Some other area hotels have been served with fine notices of assorted alleged violations of the federal statutes outlawing the hiring of undocumented workers. In one of the largest cases, said Murillo, the INS spokesman, the Executive Hotel in downtown San Diego was assessed a penalty of $9,200 last September; it eventually settled by paying $5,650, Murillo said.

Turnage said the proposed fine against the ownership of the Bahia and Catamaran will probably top the highest area total yet, a $27,000 penalty imposed on Big Bear Markets. The supermarket chain contested the penalty, and an administrative law judge later reduced it to $13,500, said Gene Smithburg, a spokesman for the Border Patrol, which conducted the investigation.

The two hotels employ about 600 workers, Evans said. The Bahia has 423 rooms, and the Catamaran Resort Hotel has 314 rooms, hotel officials said.