Latinos’ Suit Charges Racial Bias at INS

More than 50 employees of the Immigration and Naturalization Service filed suit against their own agency Friday, charging widespread racial and sexual discrimination, including denials of promotions and training because of race.

The complaint by Latino managers and field officers of the INS was filed in Washington at INS headquarters and with Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.

One of the lawyers for the INS employees, Peter Schey of Los Angeles, said the action could be the largest race discrimination suit ever filed against the federal government if it becomes a class-action suit.

“Our complaint is not that the service doesn’t hire a representative number of Hispanics, it’s that too many of them are hired to sweep the floor and shuffle paper,” Schey said.

The lead plaintiff in the case is Jesus G. Quintanar, a supervisory investigator with the INS in Los Angeles. The complaint contends that he has been “denied promotions and training because of his race, was retaliated against because of his race, has been denied the same grade level and pay scale as Anglo employees with the same or less experience and has been subjected to a racially hostile work environment.”

Included in the complaint is a long list of allegations by the Latino employees who have joined the suit, including one saying that the best INS vehicles are routinely assigned to white agents, forcing more senior Latino agents to use older cars that are in poor condition.

The suit seeks a series of corrective measures, including a non-discriminatory promotion and training system nationwide, improved training on race relations and compensatory damages for humiliation and emotional distress.

The INS said that because the matter involves a legal proceeding, it could not comment on the suit. However, the service did provide figures intended to show that minorities have not been discriminated against. Among them: in 1994, minorities were hired for 255 of the 601 supervisory jobs that came open.

Schey said he and the INS employees began discussing problems within the agency several months ago after it became clear that problems existed throughout the country and not just in one isolated bureau. Schey, a prominent civil rights lawyer, said this case was somewhat unusual for him because INS agents are often the target of suits he files.

“Normally, we’re in a very adversarial position,” he said.