This Year, INS Means Business in Avalon Raids : Catalina: The annual ‘surveys’ prompted little notice in years past. But agents got tough this year and employers were fined.

A year ago, not many people took the annual immigration raids on Catalina Island resorts too seriously. Each spring, a boatload of federal agents would round up all the illegal immigrants they could catch, then sail away, usually without a ruffle in the tourist business.

When this year’s first raid occurred in May, islanders thought it was just more of the same. They were wrong.

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents say they were not simply rounding up undocumented workers, they were also searching for proof that employers were breaking the 1986 immigration law that carries stiff fines for violators.

Last month, the INS announced that fines were levied for the first time against two Avalon restaurant owners as part of a campaign against Southern California employers who intentionally hire illegal immigrants in violation of the 1986 Immigration Reform Act. The fines totaled $3,450.

The restaurateurs were charged with knowingly employing illegal workers and failing to keep records showing that all their workers were legal residents, officials reported. Two other restaurant owners were given warnings.

Although INS agents are stepping up their crackdown on illegal workers and their employers, two raids this summer rounded up only 33 illegal immigrants--about a third of the number arrested in years past, officials said. The number of arrests has dwindled, in part, because of an informal early-warning network that alerts workers when INS agents arrive dockside in Avalon, several islanders said.

When the INS is coming, one local merchant said, “the word gets around fast.”

Angry resort operators on the island 22 miles off San Pedro say the immigration service crackdown is unfair and heavy-handed, and leaves them short of qualified workers. They contend that there is never enough local labor to meet their needs, forcing them to rely on the illegal labor force.

“The illegals are still here,” said a businessman who declined to be named. “If a restaurant or a hotel needs somebody, they take a chance and hire the illegal because there aren’t enough legal workers to go around.”

Several employers complained that the shortage of qualified labor has prompted them to help undocumented workers obtain proper work documents--and gotten them into trouble with the INS.

The immigration act requires that employers make a good faith effort to determine that the people they hire are legal residents or citizens. Employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants can be fined up to $10,000 in civil penalties or can be prosecuted for crimes that carry penalties of $3,000 in fines and up to six months in jail.

“This law has been on the books for almost five years now, and employers who fail to comply should be prepared to suffer the consequences,” said John Brechtel, head of the INS investigations division in Los Angeles.

“We’ve had trouble getting certain (Avalon) employers to abide by rules,” Brechtel said. He singled out the Busy Bee Restaurant on Crescent Street, saying the owner had knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

Busy Bee owner James Lehr was fined $2,450 for hiring two workers he knew were in the country illegally and for failing to keep accurate immigration status records on several other employes, Brechtel said.

The Mi Casita Restaurant on Claresa Street, owned by Jose Moises Gonzalez, was fined $1,000 on similar charges, according to Brechtel.

Both owners say their employees were either legal residents or were attempting to legalize their status when the INS raided the two businesses.

Lehr and Gonzalez contend that complex immigration and labor laws make compliance virtually impossible. They say federal agents are fining them for trivial errors in paperwork. Both plan to appeal.

“We don’t think this is fair. We understood if something was wrong, we’d be warned,” Gonzalez said. “They are trying to scare the employers. . . . They are saying, ‘You guys better watch out.’ ”

“It’s not like I have a (sweatshop) here and have a truck running to the border to pick up workers,” Lehr said, explaining that his two workers were legalizing their status with his assistance but had not yet qualified to work here. “These were trusted employees who had worked for me (as cooks) for several years. We were trying to get them visas,” Lehr said.

Immigration officials said that they had no problem with Lehr’s attempt to obtain work visas for the cooks but that such applications did not make it legal for Lehr to employ them in the meantime.

Although most islanders agree that illegal immigrants have been working on the island for years, no one has any idea how many arrive each spring. The city is easy to reach, and undocumented workers blend with the island’s 3,000 permanent residents, half of whom are Spanish-speakers. Because housing is scarce and expensive, the workers crowd into shared rooms or camp out in the hills, residents said.

Before the INS began assessing fines, the annual raids hardly turned a head.

Avalon City Manager Charles Prince said that although the INS in the past has made a show of searching Avalon for illegal aliens once or twice a season, the arrests take only a small percentage of the aliens off the island.

The INS notified the city whenever it planned to send agents to the island on a survey, the euphemism for a raid, Prince said.

Not all of the undocumented workers find jobs or housing, officials say. Those without jobs sometimes congregate around the plaza, hoping for work. If they cause any trouble, “the city calls the INS to clean them out,” said Wayne Griffin, executive director of the Avalon Chamber of Commerce.

“I don’t think we have a huge problem--some of them have lived here for years,” Griffin said. “Could we get along without illegal immigrants? No. The hotels and restaurants would . . . be hard-pressed to get along without illegal aliens.”