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They’re On-Line With INS : O.C. Firm Part of Pilot Program That Screens Workers

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Virginia Valadez tapped the information about the recently hired employee on her keyboard and barely had time to pause before the Immigration and Naturalization Service program shot back a response.

“He’s authorized,” Valadez pronounced, pointing with satisfaction at her computer screen. The process has become routine for Valadez, human resources manager at GT Bicycles. The Santa Ana bike manufacturing company is one of 231 firms participating in a pilot program that verifies whether non-citizens are legally authorized to work in the United States.

Since Oct. 1, Valadez has dipped into the INS-generated database to determine the eligibility of 31 employees at GT Bicycles and Rite-Way Products, the company that distributes GT bikes. As of Friday, all but two have been confirmed that they are eligible to work.

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INS commissioner Doris Meissner has called the pilot project a major breakthrough in the identification of eligible workers. Valadez says it is a godsend for companies flooded with applications from job-seekers who are not citizens.

“I don’t see how it cannot be the wave of the future,” Valadez said. “I think every employer throughout the country, hopefully, will be able to get on this program at one time or another.”

The new Verification Information System culled at least 185 ineligible workers from the approximately 1,000 people screened between Sept. 25 and Nov. 21, said Richard Rogers, the agency’s Los Angeles district director.

Rights advocates have expressed reservations about the system, but Rogers said the INS has received no complaints since the first company signed on in September. Other businesses are now clamoring to become part of the system, he said. About 60% of the participating companies are from Orange County.

“I honestly believe we’re now able to provide what the employer needs to keep the work force clean of aliens using counterfeit documents and aliens not entitled to be employed,” Rogers said.

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The INS is concentrating its efforts on Santa Ana and the City of Industry, cities where the use of counterfeit documents has been a problem in the past and where government officials and businesses are receptive to the program, Rogers said.

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The companies were not selected because of past problems with the INS, although some have had difficulties regarding the hiring of ineligible workers in the past, Rogers said.

Participation in the program, which is scheduled through 1997, is voluntary.

Current law requires that employers examine a prospective worker’s documents--which may include a green card, Social Security card or passport--and then complete forms attesting to the employee’s eligibility to work.

Without access to the INS databank, participating employers say, it was becoming increasingly difficult to determine whether the documents were genuine.

Numerous job hunters, using increasingly sophisticated counterfeit papers, have managed to skirt a 1986 law that prohibits the employment of illegal immigrants.

“We get a lot of non-citizen applicants,” Valadez said. “It was just a matter of time [before] we innocently hired people whose identification was not valid.”

Employers say the verification program has eliminated much of the uncertainty.

“It gives you a sense of security when you’re trying to hire a strong work force,” said Robert Davis, president of St. John Knits in Irvine.

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Between Sept. 25 and mid-November, 104 St. John employees, mostly factory workers, were been checked via the INS database, which lists immigrants who have received documents verifying they are eligible to work in the country.

The vast majority were cleared to work, said Tony Krawczak, the company’s director of human resources.

“It’s going to be a great tool to help us in our hiring process,” he said.

But such optimism might be premature, said Charles Wheeler, directing attorney for National Immigration Law Center, a Los Angeles-based legal services organization.

Wheeler said he still questions the databank’s accuracy and whether it includes all non-citizens who are eligible to work.

“I think it’s really too early to tell, frankly,” Wheeler said. “We’re concerned that the system will encourage employers to discriminate against immigrants who may not have the documents that are easily verified.”

Anti-discrimination laws require that an employer hire an employee first and then verify his or her worker status.

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Some critics have said the pilot program could be used to pre-screen potential workers, increasing the likelihood of discrimination against an applicant who appears foreign-born.

Participating employers say they hire the workers and then screen them. Often, the INS program confirms an employee’s eligibility immediately.

About a third of the inquiries, however, require further checking. In some cases, INS employees are enlisted to examine other files or databases.

Prospective employees whose eligibility still cannot be confirmed are given 30 days to visit the Los Angeles INS office to settle the matter.

So far, unconfirmed workers have not been flocking to the office, Rogers said.

“As far as I know, I haven’t had anybody come in,” he said.

Jacquelyn Cleary, director of human resources for Vans Inc., of Orange, referred five employees to the INS office after being unable confirm their eligibility.

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She said none have returned for their jobs, but the new system has helped her confirm about 195 other people.

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“I can sleep at night knowing that I’ve hired people that we won’t have to terminate, she said, adding that it “really destroys our production when you hire an employee and . . . find out for one reason or another that they’re not able to work.

“It creates a more positive relationship with the employees because we don’t have to look at their cards and [say], ‘Hmmm, is that you,?’ ”

Rogers said the INS expects to expand to 1,000 the number of companies using the databank.

“We have found over the years . . . that the majority of the companies want to comply and they’re doing everything they can to comply,” Rogers said.

“We just gave them another tool.”

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