Disney Settles INS Claim of Bad Records

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 resulted in the finding of 1,156 violations in the employee records of more than 6,000 Disneyland workers, including evidence of counterfeit documents such as Social Security cards and green cards. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has said that Disneyland was randomly selected for review from a list of large area employers.

The INS had originally recommended a fine of more than $394,000, which Disneyland officials adamantly protested, saying they would formally appeal the matter in an administrative hearing.

But a hearing was never held as discussions went on for a year between the theme park and the INS before final settlement was reached in late April.

“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, adding 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 declined further comment on the case Tuesday, citing a confidentiality clause in the agreement.

INS spokeswoman Virginia Kice said that $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.”

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, however, was obtained by The Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Under the settlement, Disneyland withdrew its request for an appeal hearing and the INS avoided the time and expense of having to pursue the matter.

Disneyland is only the latest employer to pay sanctions provided for in the controversial 1986 immigration reform law. The federal government collected $5.2 million last fiscal year through the program, about $1.1 million of it from California and other western states.

Sanctions were intended to make employers take responsibility for the immigration status of their workers. The idea behind the law was that if foreigners know they won’t find acceptable work, they won’t try to immigrate illegally to the United States.

Critics counter that the INS is more concerned about whether employers keep proper records than whether they are knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. And with fake green cards and forged Social Security cards readily available, employers say they are not being given the proper tools needed to ferret out fraud.

“It’s a very burdensome process for the employers,” said Gordon P. Dale, a Santa Ana immigration lawyer. “They have to keep records for three years and they have to be open at any time for inspections. You are still liable for revisits and (more) fines.”

As a result, employers that have been fined may try to reduce their losses by negotiating a settlement. “They can reduce the fine by a matter of negotiations and the agency avoids the process of having to go before an administrative law judge or struggle with this thing for a long period of time,” Dale said.