Latino Appointed as Head of INS Western Region

Rudolph Valadez, a Latino with more than 25 years with the FBI but no experience in immigration affairs, was named Thursday as administrator of the western region of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a job that was dramatically reduced in scope last year.

In announcing the appointment, INS Commissioner Gene McNary cited Valadez’s impressive law enforcement background, including his tenure as head of the FBI’s international counterterrorism task force in Los Angeles.

McNary added that Valadez’s ethnic background should help him improve the agency’s image among Latinos, who have long viewed the INS with suspicion.

“As an American of Mexican heritage, he will represent us especially well in a region with a large population of Hispanic immigrants and citizens,” McNary said in a statement.

Valadez, 49, of Westlake Village, was unavailable for comment. He is expected to assume the job at INS regional headquarters in Laguna Niguel on Monday, a spokeswoman for the agency said.

The appointment of Valadez--who is believed to be the first Latino to serve as an IRS regional administrator--fills the void created more than 18 months ago when Ben Davidian, a protege of Gov. Pete Wilson, left to head the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Since then, several career INS administrators headed the agency’s western region--which includes California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and Guam--on a temporary basis while a search for Davidian’s permanent successor was conducted.

Although the post may be politically important, it has little of the power that it enjoyed in the 1980s and early ‘90s under Davidian and his controversial predecessor, Harold Ezell. In particular, Ezell’s flamboyant style brought the INS unparalleled publicity and earned the agency criticism from civil libertarians and advocates of immigrants’ rights.

Under an agency reorganization implemented last year, the administrator’s control over the agency’s 5,000 employees in the region was severely curtailed. Field operations, including those conducted by the Border Patrol, were turned over to INS headquarters in Washington. The regional administrator was left in charge of about 200 INS employees, most of whom have clerical and other staff duties.

The plan embittered many loyalists within the INS. When he left, Davidian criticized the reorganization as ill-advised, saying it stripped knowledgeable INS officials of local control.

Valadez, whose retirement from the FBI becomes official at the end of July, was one of 17 agents in the FBI’s Los Angeles office who sued the bureau, alleging that they and other Latino FBI agents were discriminated against, denied promotions and regularly assigned to demeaning duties.

In 1988, a federal judge in El Paso ruled in favor of the Latino agents.

The son of migrant farm workers from Mexico, Valadez has headed the local FBI task force on international counterterrorism since last year.