Ezell Raps Successor at INS for Reportedly Keeping Low Profile

Harold Ezell may be gone from his post as the West’s top immigration official, but that has not stopped him from critiquing the performance of his replacement, Ben Davidian.

Known for his outrageous comments and behavior, the colorful Ezell has now criticized Davidian, who replaced him less than two months ago as Western regional commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, for reportedly keeping a low profile and, as a result, jeopardizing some of the agency’s most pressing issues.

“I don’t believe he’s really in charge,” said Ezell, whose barbs at Davidian surfaced in several recent radio and press reports.

“He has to show the public who he is and what he is,” Ezell said. “He’s distancing himself from the public. That’s not the way you run a public agency. Even the President of the United States gets out front.”

When pressed for a response Thursday, Davidian, who in the past was quick to praise Ezell, told his predecessor to mind his own business

“I will not be seeking press advice from Mr. Ezell,” Davidian said in a tersely worded statement issued through a spokeswoman. “I don’t think there is anything productive to be gained by the former commissioner and myself debating over the administration of the Western region. This is a very challenging time for the immigration service and the agency needs all of the support it can get both from within and without.”

As the top INS official in the West for 6 1/2 years until last July, Ezell staged hundreds of news conferences to get the agency’s message out to the public. In contrast, Ezell said in a telephone interview Wednesday, Davidian has purposely ignored several pressing issues.

For example, Ezell said, Davidian has been silent about the agency’s efforts to remind aliens to complete the second phase of requirements for the landmark amnesty program. His silence, Ezell said, could curtail the program’s success.

Required Classes

About 48% of the 1 million aliens who signed up for amnesty in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam have thus far completed the second phase’s required English and U.S. history classes in order to qualify for their legal U.S. residency. Without constant reminders, Ezell said, many eligible aliens may not complete those requirements, threatening them with deportation.

Some public agencies, particularly the Los Angeles city schools, have reported a dramatic recent drop in the number of aliens who had signed up for amnesty classes. School officials blame INS officials--including both Ezell and Davidian--for failing to organize an effective advertising campaign to persuade aliens to complete the classes.

“He was in a win-win situation with Phase II, but he’s backed off,” Ezell said. “I get calls all the time from folks in the media, saying: ‘What happened to the INS? There’s nothing coming out of them.’

“The no-comment posture takes them back 20 years.”

But Davidian said Thursday that he did not want to discuss substantive issues facing the INS until a permanent commissioner is confirmed to replace former INS Commissioner Alan C. Nelson, who was forced to resign in July.

Sends Signals

Since taking over, Davidian, former chairman of the California Agriculture Labor Relations Board, has made it clear that he would be less gregarious and publicity-conscious than Ezell had been.

“He wants to turn the spotlight away from the commissioner and back to the men and women in the field,” INS spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.

That is little solace to Ezell, who said that high-ranking Justice Department officials--the INS is an arm of that department--have told Davidian to keep quiet.

“A brand new guy doesn’t make those kinds of decisions (to shun publicity),” Ezell said. “I think somebody (in Washington, D.C.) made the decision for him. That’s what I think.”

Although Davidian declined to respond to those comments, an INS staffer in the agency’s regional headquarters in Laguna Niguel observed: “Davidian is in the thick of everything here. This ain’t no cult of personality operation.”