Deal Nears on Suit Accusing INS of Job Bias

In what would be one of the largest bias settlements against the federal government, the Justice Department is nearing final agreement on a deal to pay more than $4 million in back wages to about 800 current and past employees of the Immigration and Naturalization Service who say they were denied promotions because they are black.

The proposed settlement--which also would require so-called remedial promotions for 26 African American INS staffers nationwide--is to be filed before U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan in Washington.

“We have a preliminary settlement and we’re hoping it will be finalized and signed within the next few days,” said Greg Gagne, an INS spokesman in Washington.

Officials of the INS and its parent body, the Justice Department, declined to discuss the contents of the proposed settlement. But a copy of the pact was obtained by The Times.

The federal government would agree to hand over $4.1 million in back pay, $1.5 million in legal fees and provide 26 promotions for affected employees, according to a copy of the proposed settlement. In addition, the INS would hire an independent consultant to monitor the hiring and promotion of African Americans in the INS for three years.

Under the proposed settlement, either side will be able to go back to court and seek judicial intervention if there is evidence that the agreement is being violated.

“The settlement is completed,” said David L. Ross, whose national law practice represented the about 800 INS employees affected by discrimination. He confirmed details of the proposal.

As part of the accord, the Justice Department admits no wrongdoing--a standard provision in such settlements, attorneys said.

In addition, most affected employees will retain limited rights to seek so-called compensatory damages for suffering emotional stress, pain and anguish brought on by the discrimination.

The pact signals the close of a bitter case that arose more than five years ago when 19 Los Angeles-based INS investigators filed an internal complaint alleging that they were denied promotions because of racial bias.

The settlement is expected to be the latest resolution of a series of discrimination cases against federal agencies that include the FBI, the State Department and the CIA. In these cases and others, lawyers for the plaintiffs say, white male supervisors maintained a glass ceiling that prevented the advancement of blacks, women and Latinos.

“There has been a good old boys’ network that meant you got promoted based on who you knew,” said David J. Shaffer, a Washington-based lawyer who has represented FBI agents and others alleging employment discrimination. “That’s changing, but it takes a while to change when you’ve got a generation of white male supervisors making decisions on who gets promoted.”

After the initial complaint in Los Angeles, the INS case was later certified as a national class action suit for all African American members of the agency’s “officer corps,” an employee group that includes Border Patrol agents, examiners, and deportation and detention workers.

“I feel relieved, but I can hardly say I’m happy about what happened,” said Norris Potter III, a Los Angeles-based INS criminal investigator who was the lead plaintiff. “This case has humbled me. But I feel I’m a more compassionate person now.”

Potter, 42, an 11-year employee of the INS, said he decided to challenge INS hiring practices when he suspected that he was being denied promotions because he was black. Potter contended that his formal complaint triggered extensive retaliation, including a five-day suspension, as well as anonymous letters and telephone calls to his wife.

“You deserve better than that mentally deranged liar,” read an anonymous missive addressed to his wife. “He is a danger to the Immigration Service and to his family!”

As part of the settlement, Potter will receive a $90,000 cash settlement, a promotion to a supervisory job and a transfer to Seattle.

“I want to put this behind me and get on with my life,” Potter said.

The atmosphere among workers in the Los Angeles INS office was described as dangerous in a 1993 agency task force report on the charges.

“The present work environment is sufficiently hostile and volatile that physical injury to managers and special agents is possible,” said the report, written by Michael J. Creppy, a former INS associate general counsel and now the nation’s chief immigration judge. “There are large numbers of employees who seem completely alienated from management. While this included nearly all of the African Americans with whom we spoke, it also included Hispanics and a number of white employees.”

The 1993 report found that the INS’s nearly 2,000 African American employees nationwide--representing about 11% of the agency’s total work force--were underrepresented in management ranks. Blacks were almost invisible at the highest echelons.

Both sides in the lawsuit agree that the prospects for African Americans in the INS have improved markedly in the past five years. The agency’s budget has more than doubled, and the payroll has reached almost 30,000 employees.

“Certainly we feel we’ve made a great deal of progress since 1993 to improve the promotion possibilities for African Americans,” said Gagne, the INS spokesman. “But we also recognize that we have a lot of work to do in this area.”

The INS settlement, lawyers said, is among several other high-profile discrimination cases against federal agencies.

Black agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms received about $6.5 million in back pay and damages to settle a discrimination case against that agency, said Shaffer, the Washington attorney who handled the case. But the ATF agents, unlike their INS counterparts, agreed not to seek additional compensatory damages. So potentially, the plaintiffs in the INS suit could later collect more money.

About 1,500 African American employees of the Library of Congress were awarded $9 million after challenging that agency, said Joseph Sellers, a Washington lawyer who represented the employees. He also represented employees in bias suits against the State Department and CIA that were settled for $3.8 million and $1.5 million, respectively.

“The federal government is supposed to be a model employer,” Sellers said. “But it doesn’t always work out that way.”

Discrimination cases against private companies often yield much larger settlements--in the tens of millions and more. That is, in part, because private concerns, unlike the federal government, can be held liable for punitive damages. Last year, Texaco settled a discrimination claim by African Americans for a record $176 million.

Once the final settlement in the INS case is filed, Judge Hogan will be asked to approve it. He probably will hold a hearing on the accord, attorneys said, before issuing a final approval. Lawyers said the process could take several months.

The $4.1 million in back pay proposed in the settlement is to be divided among the more than 800 current and former INS employees. The cash will be split based on factors such as length of service and the number of promotions improperly denied, lawyers said.