O.C. Garment Maker Facing Heavy Penalty

Clothes Connection, a large Santa Ana garment contractor that was raided last fall by immigration agents, faces one of the largest fines ever levied by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Southern California.

After a yearlong investigation, INS officials said Wednesday that they have proposed a fine of $440,000 against Clothes Connection for alleged violations involving several hundred workers.

Richard Rogers, INS director for the Los Angeles district, said Clothes Connection was cited for failing to take required steps to ensure that its workers were legal residents.

“It’s pretty egregious,” said Rogers, noting that INS agents tried to work with Clothes Connection to resolve the matter. But after record-keeping problems persisted, Rogers said, agents raided the plant last October and arrested 42 illegal immigrant workers.

Cynthia A. Woodruff, attorney for Clothes Connection, said the company intends to appeal the fine.

“The company has never knowingly hired someone who submitted false paperwork or did not have paperwork to work in the United States,” she said.

Separately, INS officials said Wednesday that they issued a fine of $439,000 to another Orange County business, roofing contractor Honeycutt Tearoff.

INS originally proposed a fine of $1.2 million against Orange-based Honeycutt in June 1994, alleging that the contractor knowingly hired undocumented workers and then forged employment forms. Since that time, INS and Honeycutt representatives have wrangled over the fine amount. Late last week, INS mailed out its final fine to Honeycutt.

Honeycutt can still appeal the fine, which would bring the case before an administrative judge to decide. Honeycutt’s office was closed Wednesday because of the rains, according to the company’s phone recording. Company President John Honeycutt, who was accused by INS of fabricating and backdating employment eligibility documents, could not be reached at his home.

In Clothes Connection’s case, INS officials said the apparel contractor was cited for several violations. One of the allegations states that Clothes Connection never completed the employment verification form for about 450 workers. Another alleged that the company failed to fill out the paperwork in a timely manner involving at least 350 workers.

Clothes Connection currently employs about 500 people, but the company, which makes clothes that wind up on racks of discount retailers such as Kmart, had as many as 2,000 on its payroll about a year ago.

Located in Santa Ana’s enterprise zone, an area where businesses can get tax credits for hiring and equipment purchases, Clothes Connection has been beset with labor problems in the last year.

The company has been fined by Cal/OSHA for a number of health and safety violations, and it has come under heat from the state labor commissioner’s office, which accused the company of not paying overtime wages and of illegally charging workers for tools needed for their jobs.

Clothes Connection has denied wrongdoing.