Third World

Lack of penalties on employers seen as incentive
By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

April 15, 2005

EARNIE GRAFTON / Union-Tribune
ID badges, some with access to the 32nd Street naval station, were
taken from people working in the U.S. illegally.
In what immigration officials are calling the most widespread hiring of
unauthorized workers by a local employer in years, 86 people have been
found to be working illegally for a San Diego military contractor, more
than half the company's 167-person work force.

The unauthorized workers were discovered during a federal audit of
Naval Coating Inc., a contracting company that paints and sandblasts
U.S. Navy and commercial ships. In keeping with the recent trend in
work-site enforcement, the employer faces no immediate criminal or
civil penalties, although an investigation is pending.

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Eighteen Naval Coating employees, all in the country illegally, were
arrested in their homes early yesterday morning by agents from U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two of them, including one who had
a drug smuggling conviction, had been deported before. Thirteen
undocumented immigrants found living with the workers were also
arrested. The rest of the unauthorized workers are being sought. Most
had clearance to enter the U.S. Naval Station at 32nd Street, as well
as shipyards they were sent to that contract with the military.

ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said that while other work-site enforcement
actions in recent years have netted more arrests - 31 unauthorized
employees of Continental Marine were arrested a year ago - the Naval
Coating audit unearthed the greatest number of employees found working
illegally for a local company in at least five years.

All of the 86 unauthorized workers had presented counterfeit driver
licenses, state-issued identification cards, Social Security cards or
green cards. Some of the documents had spelling and punctuation errors,
Mack said.

Immigration laws require employers only to request identification from
applicants, not to verify its authenticity. But the sheer number of
unauthorized workers discovered at Naval Coating has raised a red flag,
Mack said, warranting further investigation.

"Definitely, it is quite concerning to us that this company had such a
large number of unauthorized workers," she said, adding that most had
been with the company a year or less.

Yesterday afternoon, a receptionist at Naval Coating said that company
president and owner James Kuvelas had instructed her to say "no
comment."

The company was audited as part of Operation Safe Cities, a federal
work-site inspection program that targets local businesses in
industries deemed sensitive to national security breaches, such as
military contractors and airports.

Since the program's inception in December 2003, more than 540
businesses in San Diego and Imperial counties have been audited, and
more than 160 workers arrested.

But none of these workers has had ties to terrorism or came from
nations designated by the federal government as "special interest"
countries linked to terrorist activities. Of the 18 arrested yesterday,
17 are from Mexico and one is from Guatemala. All the detainees are
expected to be returned to their native countries.

So far, none of the employers targeted under Safe Cities has been
penalized. According to ICE, only two employers in the city of San
Diego have been referred to the U.S. attorney for prosecution since
2000.

"The magnet continues to be there," said Joe Dassaro, president of
Local 1613 of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents
agents in the San Diego area. "(The employers) go back to the same
practices because they are not penalized."
Leslie Berestein: (619) 542-4579; leslie.berest...@uniontrib.com

leslie.berestein
@uniontrib.com

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...99-7m15workers...