Vans Factory Back on Line After Raid : Immigration: A 10th of work force in Orange plant was arrested by INS. Many of the jobs left by deportees won’t be filled.

A day after immigration authorities arrested 233 workers at Vans Inc., company officials said that production lines were moving again Friday despite the loss of a 10th of its work force.

All but 14 of those arrested Thursday agreed to deportation shortly after being taken into custody Thursday at the sneaker maker’s headquarters in Orange. Nine were released, most because they have petitions pending to become U.S. citizens. Another five refused deportation and demanded hearings.

Absenteeism was higher than usual Friday as some workers scrambled to try to help family members who were being deported, Vans President Richard P. Leeuwenburg said. Among those arrested were some of the company’s most senior workers, including some with 10 years’ experience.

Vans had no knowledge that the workers were undocumented, Leeuwenburg said. The company, which has annual revenue of more than $90 million, recently hired a consultant who validated its hiring procedures. Those arrested Thursday apparently used fake immigration papers to get hired, the company said.

“I don’t think there is a company in Southern California or the U.S. that can prevent that because we have no way, beyond looking at a person’s documents, to determine whether they are legal,” Leeuwenburg said.

He said Vans employs a large pool of unskilled laborers--most paid about $5.70 a hour--to produce canvas-topped sneakers. The company does not advertise for its factory positions; rather, it depends on workers themselves to spread the word when positions are open. As a result, many of those who work there are related.

The effect of the raid rippled the company’s stock price, which closed Friday at $11.75 a share, down $1, in heavy NASDAQ trading.

“I think it’s just a small blemish,” said Dave Rose, an analyst for the brokerage L.H. Friend Weinross & Frankson in Irvine. “This is a fairly common occurrence in the apparel industry, especially in Southern California.”

Seth Feinstein, an analyst for the brokerage Crowell, Weedon & Co. in Los Angeles, said the company appears to be the victim of fraudulent papers. “How do you protect yourself from something that is fake?” he asked.

As part of its investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service also seized 5,000 personnel files to determine if Vans knew that the workers’ identification cards were fake. Though the law doesn’t require companies to keep photocopies of workers’ IDs in their files, the INS said, many do so.

If the government can prove that Vans knowingly hired illegal immigrants, the company could face civil fines of $250 to $2,000 for each illegal worker. If the INS can prove that Vans systematically violated the law by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, the case would move to criminal court for a maximum $3,000 fine and six-month prison terms for managers.

Neither the INS nor Vans officials suggested that the company had any knowledge that the workers were undocumented. The INS said it was likely that someone in the plant was supplying job applicants with fake IDs.

Federal law requires employers to ask new employees to produce two pieces of identification to prove that they are in the United States legally.

The two most common IDs for immigrants are a federal Alien Registration Card--the so-called green card--and a Social Security card. Under federal law, though, an employer is not required to check whether the IDs are valid--unless they are obvious forgeries.

INS agents will begin sorting through Vans’ personnel records next week in search of such obvious fakes, INS spokesman John Brechtel said. The job will take at least two weeks.

The INS said Thursday’s raid was prompted by tips about illegal workers at Vans.

Federal agents had visited the company twice before: in 1982, when they picked up a group of undocumented workers, and in 1984, when they arrested 140 workers at a factory that the company operated at the time in Anaheim.

Both of those incidents were before the imposition of the stringent 1986 immigration law that requires employers to check carefully whom they hire.

Vans has 2,400 employees at plants in Orange and the San Diego County community of Vista. During Thursday’s raid on the facility in Orange, agents checked the IDs of all morning shift workers. Because of the raid and the resulting confusion, the afternoon shift was canceled, Leeuwenburg said.

The Vista plant was not raided.