$260,000 Paid by Disneyland in Immigrant Records Case

In what is believed to be one of the largest settlements of its kind in California, Disneyland has quietly paid $260,000 to settle allegations of shoddy record-keeping that violated federal immigration laws.

An investigation last year by the Immigration and Naturalization Service found 1,156 violations in the employee records of more than 6,000 Disneyland workers, including evidence of counterfeit documents such as phony Social Security cards and green cards. The agency said Disneyland was randomly selected for review from a list of large area employers.

Under the settlement, Disneyland paid the amount without having to make an admission of wrongdoing. The agreement also stipulated that neither side would disclose the amount paid or the terms of the deal. A copy of the agreement was obtained by The Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The INS had originally recommended a fine of more than $394,000, which was reduced in the final settlement reached several weeks ago.

“I think INS accomplished its point of telling the business community, ‘We mean it and we will vigorously enforce this law,’ ” said Los Angeles immigration lawyer Josie Gonzalez. Gonzalez added that the fine reduction is within the general range that the INS usually considers to encourage businesses to settle violations.

Juan Osuna, an editor for Interpreter Releases, a Washington-based legal periodical that monitors immigration cases, said the $260,000 payment “is quite a bit of money,” certainly “enough to get their attention, and that was the purpose of it.”

Disneyland officials said last year that the Anaheim theme park has never knowingly employed any illegal immigrants and that only five suspected illegal immigrants using phony work documents were uncovered by the investigation. All were immediately fired.

A Disneyland spokesman reached Tuesday had no further comment on the case, citing the confidentiality clause on disclosure.

INS spokeswoman Virginia Kice said $260,000 appears to be one of the largest payouts ever in California, although “clearly we don’t keep a tally board. The amount is not as important as the result.”