HIRE: Local Firm One of First to Be Cited Under New INS Law : Local Firm One of First Cited Under INS Law

In the first California case filed under the new federal immigration law, an El Cajon water bed manufacturer was notified Friday that it may be fined $6,000 for knowingly hiring illegal aliens.

Mester Manufacturing, which employs about 100 workers, was cited by the Border Patrol after agents made four visits since July to explain the new law and to warn the company that it was in violation, officials said.

“This is a very significant day for us,” said Harold Ezell, western regional commissioner for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, parent body of the Border Patrol.

Signal to Others

Noting that the Border Patrol has recently warned about 70 other employers in the region not to continue knowingly hire illegal aliens, Ezell added:

“Today’s case gives a signal to employers that this law is not a paper tiger. We have got to get the message out. Now there are three things certain in life: Death, taxes and that the INS is going to keep coming around.”

When the notice of intent to seek the fines was handed to the company Friday, agents also apprehended 27 workers believed to be illegal aliens. Those workers, mostly young men, will be returned to Mexico, officials said.

Barry Mester, the firm’s owner, said most of those taken into custody had been employees for two to five years and he had always assumed that they were in this country legally, adding that they were hired long before the new law took effect. He said he has required all employees hired since the law was enacted to show the proper documentation, as the new law stipulates.

He said Friday’s citation might force him to slow plant operations in El Cajon and bolster his work force at a second plant in Tijuana.

Mester, 27, who started the company eight years ago in his garage, said the El Cajon plant manufactures about 1,000 water beds each week. “I don’t need this,” he said. “We’ll just manufacture more in Mexico now. Up here, you won’t get white guys to work for $6 an hour.”

Under the new immigration law, employers are required to make prospective employees prove they are U.S. citizens or have the right to work in the country before they are hired. Employees hired before Nov. 6, 1986, are exempt from the requirement.

Case in Virginia

Also on Friday, the INS in Washington announced a similar action against a Virginia hotel for employing 11 undocumented aliens. The Quality Hotel in Arlington, Va., was cited for up to $16,500 in fines.

Dale W. Cozart, chief of the San Diego Border Patrol, said agents met with Mester Manufacturing officials on July 2 and explained the new law, as they did in about 14,000 similar visits to area employers.

On Sept. 2, he said, agents inspected the El Cajon plant and found 11 employment violations, and the plant was cited the following day. He said a second review on Sept. 25 turned up the violations for which the firm was cited Friday.

Under the law, Mester has 30 days to respond to the notice of intent to fine. If Mester’s response is denied, Cozart said, the firm can appeal to an administrative law judge.

If future employment violations are found, the government can seek criminal charges and penalties, Ezell said.

“The key here is that they knowingly hired illegal aliens,” Ezell charged. “We told them that and they still hired illegal aliens.”

Border Patrol Agent Steve Shanks said that during visits to the plant this summer, Mester admitted that he knew he was in violation.

“He obviously wasn’t buying this law,” Shanks said.

However, Mester said the Border Patrol “never made it clear what we were supposed to be doing” as far as verifying the proper documentation and completing the new forms. “In fact,” he added, “the first day they were here they couldn’t even tell me how to fill out the papers.”

He said many of the employees apprehended Friday had families and lived in the El Cajon area, and that an additional 30 workers “cross the border to come to work every day with their green cards and work permits.”

“I told my foreman what this raid was all about,” Mester said. “He just got his papers himself last week. Now he’s in tears.”