Toeing the Line : INS Regional Head Davidian Uses Low-Key Approach in Contrast to Ezell

Ben Davidian relishes the fact that he’s visited just about every outpost under his jurisdiction as the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service’s top official in the West. He remembers a visit he paid Christmas Eve on unsuspecting Border Patrol agents near Nogales, Ariz.

“Can we do something for you?” several uniformed agents asked Davidian, not recognizing him to be the INS Western regional commissioner. “Well,” he replied, “I was hoping to do something for you.”

After a few more questions, the embarrassed agents figured out who Davidian was.

“I’ll say this,” one agent later confided, “any man who wants to freeze his buns with us on the Mexican border on Christmas Eve is OK by me.”

The episode seems to say much about the 38-year-old Sacramento lawyer in the six months since he succeeded the controversial and colorful Harold Ezell as one of four regional INS commissioners in the United States. He enjoys meeting many of the immigration service’s 5,500 employees in his sprawling region that encompasses California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and the Pacific island of Guam.

The problem, according to his critics, is that he isn’t meeting the right kind of people.

Davidian has been attacked--both inside and outside the INS--as being an “invisible commissioner” who is afraid to meet with adversaries in the immigration field who are interested in finding out his views on important issues.

He also has been accused of being a weak leader and being afraid of making decisions that might anger superiors in Washington.

Part of the criticism stems from Davidian’s avowed intention to reverse Ezell’s publicity-seeking posture and turn the spotlight back to the “hard-working, dedicated (INS) men and women in the field.” For example, he makes no apology for the fact that he has not yet held a news conference to articulate his views or those of the INS.

In doing so, critics believe Davidian’s silence has helped undermine the morale of many INS bureaucrats and has given a subtle message to Southern California’s large immigrant population that it can expect little help from him.

“He’s an invisible commissioner who has done little to reach out to immigrant communities,” said Linda Mitchell, a top official with a coalition of immigrant rights groups in Los Angeles. “I mean, who knows who he is?”

Ernest Gustafson, who retired last September as INS district director in Los Angeles, added: “My concern is that the silence out of the INS is very negative for the community. It could develop into a curtain blocking the INS from the communities it is trying to serve.

“Six months have gone by and we don’t know anything new about him or the INS.”

Davidian rejected the criticism, saying that controversy comes with the territory.

“This is a job that is not going to make friends with everybody,” Davidian said in an interview at INS regional headquarters in Laguna Niguel. “You cannot have a job that deals with enforcement as well as service and expect everybody to like what you do.”

Several problems have cropped up that critics say could have been avoided if Davidian were a more aggressive executive:

* The post left vacant by Gustafson’s retirement, considered by many to be the second most important agency job in the West, is not filled. Without a replacement at the top, INS staffers say morale has plummeted in the downtown Los Angeles office while Davidian and officials in Washington deliberate about who should be appointed.

* Davidian’s office is lax in persuading aliens to complete their amnesty applications under the latest phase of the landmark immigration reform law. To achieve legal residency, applicants must complete courses on U.S. history and English by November. To date, 70% of the 1 million applicants in the West have completed the second step, but critics say the percentage could be much higher if Davidian was personally involved.

* Davidian’s views on various immigration issues, such as political asylum and increased funding for the agency, are unknown. Davidian said he chooses not to talk publicly about his views, partly because that is the job of his boss, INS Commissioner Gene McNary in Washington.

* Some Latino activists involved in immigration work accuse Davidian of refusing to meet with them. He rejects that charge, saying he has met in recent months with representatives from such well-known Latino organizations as the American GI Forum and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

But Arnold Torres, national political adviser for LULAC, said those contacts were unauthorized and not substantive. “Since August, we have repeatedly sought meetings with him but he has officially closed the door after our opposition to the confirmation of McNary as INS commissioner.”

Such criticism does not seem to faze Davidian, a man of reserved demeanor who chaired the California Agriculture Labor Relations Board for 2 1/2 years as an appointee of Republican Gov. George Deukmejian before assuming the INS post Aug. 15.

Davidian said he has worked hard to forge links with some Asian, Latino and other ethnic groups, adding that he’s willing to meet with members of “responsible groups” when his schedule permits it.

To the criticism that he has been slow in appointing a Los Angeles district director to replace Gustafson, Davidian said he takes “full responsibility.”

“I’d love to fill that job,” he said. But he said McNary, who must have a hand in the selection, is still relatively new to his post and has other items to deal with first.

“It’s such an important job that I think we’ll be very slow, very deliberative,” Davidian said.

Some of Davidian’s strongest supporters are those who work with him at the INS Laguna Niguel headquarters. They give him top marks in his first six months.

“He’s very popular with the people who work with him,” said career INS official William King, who is in charge of the amnesty effort in the West. “He’s very bright, very energetic. He’s playing it low-key until he learns his job properly.”

Even Ezell, whose publicity stunts and outrageous statements sometimes got him into hot water with higher-ups during his six-year tenure as INS Western regional commissioner, has kudos for Davidian.

“I’ve heard nothing but good things about him from guys close in (who work with Davidian),” Ezell said. “And they ought to know.”

Officials within the Justice Department, which oversees the INS, say Davidian’s demeanor is a marked improvement over Ezell’s flamboyant, controversial style. Ezell came under fire for threatening to cut off federal funds to cities that supported the sanctuary movement for Central American refugees and once embarrassed the agency by attending a party thrown by Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos at a time when they were under investigation by the Justice Department for allegedly stealing tens of millions of dollars from the Philippines treasury.

Davidian, who favors pinstripe suits and button-down collars, would never be mistaken for Ezell, who repeatedly donned a Mexican sombrero to publicize amnesty.

“Davidian’s not running around with sombreros on, talking all kinds of stuff that was not cleared with anybody in Washington,” said one Justice Department official, who asked not to be identified. “He’s competent, steady and working hard.”

But there are others inside the INS Western region who accuse Davidian of being a “wimp” who is afraid of offending his superiors. The criticism is so stinging that they asked not to be identified.

“He’s a joke, a political hack,” said one INS middle-manager. “We ought to have INS professionals running the show.”

Said another mid-level official inside the agency: “His office has copies of correspondence stacked from the floor to the ceiling waiting for his signature for several weeks because he is afraid of making a decision. He hasn’t filled the L.A. job yet. He manages like a puppet by only reacting when Washington tells him how and when to take action.

“Ezell was overzealous but Davidian is the invisible wimp behind his closed office door.”

Davidian said his door is always open and does not understand the criticism by those under him.

“I have to say I have an open-door policy and I can’t meet with everybody who wants to meet with me,” he said. “I’ve never had . . . somebody walk up to me and tell me we have a morale problem that has anything to do with what I’m doing.”

Davidian’s reluctance to speak out publicly is tied to a restrictive policy imposed on the INS by McNary, who followed the lead of his boss, Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh.

Last November, Thornburgh started a campaign within the Justice Department against unauthorized leaks to reporters. McNary then issued a directive requiring that all news media inquiries, unless they are of the most routine nature, be cleared with INS headquarters in Washington. It requires Washington’s approval before any INS official, including ranking ones like Davidian, can speak officially with a reporter.

But in the months since the policy began, overly cautious immigration officials at every level have checked with Washington before releasing any information. Recently, when one official at the Laguna Niguel regional headquarters was asked for his title, he replied that he would have to get clearance from Washington.

The official never called back.

Davidian refuses to be drawn into a debate on the issue.

But Ezell, who was never shy about voicing his opinions, said he opposes the new policy.

“The attorney general can be the one spokesman for the Justice Department and that’s his decision,” Ezell said. “But it’s a lousy one. He’s not omnipresent. You have a department with qualified appointees who are commissioners. That’s what you got them there for. The attorney general’s 3,000 miles away from the action.”

Furthermore, Ezell said, the aggressive public posture the agency took during the Reagan Administration is “going down the tubes.”

Instead of reacting to the criticism, Davidian is content to go out and meet the troops and face the challenges of his job, even if he lacks Ezell’s showmanship.

One of those challenges is the agency’s growing role in the interdiction of illegal drugs smuggled across the U.S.-Mexican border.

The INS role in the drug war comes at a time when Bush Administration officials admit there are dwindling funds for an already overworked immigration service.

Davidian said he was surprised when he learned how much drugs his Border Patrol agents are seizing while apprehending illegal aliens.

“One day, a coyote (alien smuggler) may be bringing over undocumented aliens. The next day, he or she may be bringing over marijuana. The next day, it may be cocaine and the next day, it may be undocumented aliens again,” Davidian said.

“We didn’t go looking for the war on drugs. It came to us.”