![](http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050415/images/metro_workers.jpg")
Posted on 04/15/2005 7:33:29 AM PDT by onyx
Lack of penalties on employers seen as incentive
By Leslie Berestein
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 15, 2005
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.
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."
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Leslie Berestein: (619) 542-4579;
leslie.berestein@uniontrib.com
It's worse than sad.
It's bowing to the unlawful.
Here is the headline I would have written for the story.
86 illegals caught working on San Diego military base
And here is the headline that accompanies the actual story.
Lack of penalties on employers seen as incentive
You're exactly right.
The UT is soft on ILLEGALS.
They're also anti Roger Hedgecock.
Great leadership under the reign of Helen Copley's homosexual son. /sarcasm
Why not both? Seal the borders and penalize the guilty companies?
That was the first thing I noticed, what about the other 62 or so? Most likely they were given an order to show up for a court hearing at a later date. They're probably in NY by now never to be heard from again.
Don't worry, if you collapse, the nozzle has a dead-man switch and will shut off automatically. We'll come get you.
Well ok then wise one, you tell me then, what happened to the other 62? I'll be waiting patiently for your non-sensical answer. Nevermind, since you know diddly squat about what passes for immigration policy today I'll answer it for you: it's called catch and release.
Do you consider sandblasting to be a popular career?
Lol answer my question first Benny, what do you think happened to other 62?
Under GW Bush, the response to 9/11/2001 has been uneven.
US Military, outstanding response. Credit Rumsfeld (and Bush)
Homeland Security, horrible. Discredit Ridge, (and Bush)
Transportation Security, horrible. Discredit agency head (and Bush)
IMMIGRATION, horrible. Discredit Congress, Bush.
I made a statement the deals with the issue of jobs that Americans don't want to do. The jobs that Americans don't want to do is is the most central/most important issue when it comes to illegals and guest workers.
This is a subject you don't want to talk about because you know that there are jobs and no one here wants to them.
If you don't want sandblast, How about laying asphalt in the west Texas sun? Changing sheets and cleaning toilets at the NoTell Motel? Tin Bending has a great future?
If you grease the hands of the right people you will be amazed at what you can get by with!
James D. Kuvelas, President, Naval Coating Incorporated gave campaign cash to Juan Vargas...
Assemblymember Juan Vargas represents the seventy-ninth assembly district in the state of California. The district consists of the southern portion of San Diego, the western portion of Chula Vista and the cities of Coronado, Imperial Beach and National City.
Juan was born the third son of ten children on March 7, 1961, in National City, California. Tomas and Celina Vargas, Juan’s parents, moved to the United States from Mexico in the late 1940s and raised their children on an egg ranch.
I'm fully aware of what you're trying to say but the law is the law is it not? You seem to be implying illegals can do what ever they want, enter illegally, use phony documents, lie continously but because no one in the hot sun of Texas supposedly wants to sandblast we should look the other way.
Don't you think the proponents of a guest worker program would have a more legitimate claim we need these workers if the law was enforced and illegals sent home first? It would be clear at that point with the economy collapsing and all how badly we must have them around.
While this was going on the eight years of Clinton, as
this was the time of the big buildup, not much said.
They are all over the US not only So. Cal.
With the vast amount of liberals, the left main stream news, The ACLU, and the approx 40 some million hispanics
etc. there is not a simple solution to the border situation
as much as I would wish it. Especially being 15 miles from
the border. It is like trying to stop a speeding train and
turn it around in five seconds.
Also this same pressure should have been put on Clinton those eight yrs. Also we should have stopped fellow conservatives from hiring illegals.
This isn't something Bush created but it is something the
third party types will use next election and will result
in Hillary as President. Remember it is the third party
that brought us Carter and Clinton.
Its not an experiment, those in govt know exactly what will happen. They have staticians, analysts, economists, etc. They have the Dept of Commerce, the Federal Reserve Bank, etc. This is their source of facts.
You, on the other hand get your facts from VDare, World Net Daily and Free Republic.
They sure do know what would happen... their campaign contributers who want an endless supply of cheap labor at taxpayer expense might stop giving them money.
You, on the other hand get your facts from VDare, World Net Daily and Free Republic.
Do you have some evidence to back up that explosive claim?
If you think that is the problem then you need to advocate CFR. That is not a popular subject at FR, you might get tarred and feathered. Or banned.
Somebody please post some phone numbers?
I have no idea who to call.
If direct consumers of illegal immigrant labour were forced to make these same guarantees, rather than hang them on society at large, I'd have no objection to a sane and enforceable guest worker program. I'd suspect such a program would attract the cream of the crop especially since they would have to be treated the same as legal immigrants and American workers-- including minimum wage and labor laws.
I also suspect the demand for such workers would be highly specialized since the employer is actually taking a bigger risk with such workers. Foreigners who work legally in Japan (or almost any other country with a sane immigration policy) are actually paid a wage premium over local workers. As such, the number of local workers they replace is near zero.
The 13th amendment is still the law of the land. Those who wish to circumvent it should pay the societal costs of doing so.
When legal immigrants are given preference over illegal immigrants, the overall quality of thw workforce will improve as well as respect for the law. Unfortunately, we have the reverse situation where any logical-thinking legal immigrant will question why they went to the trouble to come and stay here legally.
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