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[log in to unmask] has recommended this article from
The Christian Science Monitor's electronic edition.
FYI
What has happened to our brothers in Atlanta - please update. I pray that they get released soon.
Habib
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Headline: A new dragnet for illegal workers
Byline: Ron Scherer Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Date: 03/06/2002
(NEW YORK)Haitian Jean-Claude Cazeau was a janitor at Logan Airport. Far from his
native Malaysia, Shamshad Bagam Karim was a parking valet at Las
Vegas's McCarran Airport. And Alvaro Pardo, originally from Chile,
worked at a candy store at the Salt Lake City airport.
Within the past weeks, all three have been arrested and now face the
possibility of jail time and deportation. They were detained for
allegedly using some form of false identification to obtain their jobs
- each in a secure area of an airport.
The expanding dragnet symbolizes a hardening stance by federal
authorities toward illegal immigrants of all nationalities who they
think might pose a security threat.
While law-enforcement officials have yet to link any of the people
recently arrested - almost all of whom are Latinos - to terrorists,
they believe that undocumented workers are susceptible to being
approached by nefarious groups.
Critics, however, believe the undocumented workers are being unfairly
targeted. Consequently, the new sweeps are setting off a debate over
the extent to which illegal immigrants, many of whom have been allowed
to work unmolested in such low-wage jobs for years, will and should be
prosecuted in a post-Sept. 11 world.
For some of the US public, the issue results in a conflict in values.
"Americans have an ambivalent attitude toward illegal immigrants," says
James Lindsay, an immigration specialist at the Brookings Institution
in Washington. "They expect people to obey the law, but they don't put
too much pressure to arrest them and argue it's unfair or
counterproductive."
The Bush administration, for its part, seems to be adopting a
zero-tolerance policy. One Justice Department official says making
airports safer is of the highest priority for the administration - and
the latest moves are intended to fulfill the intent of legislation
passed after Sept. 11.
"Undocumented workers represent a significant threat to the flying
public," says Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the US Attorney's
office in Las Vegas. "Because they are illegal, they are susceptible to
compromise."
Airport workers may not be the only ones under scrutiny. US
investigators are expected to also go through employment applications
at nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams, and other
security-sensitive facilities.
One mayor's stand
So far, some 100 airport workers have been arrested. After the arrests,
Rocky Anderson, the mayor of Salt Lake City, sent a letter to 40 other
mayors warning them about the federal raids and urging them to "get the
word out that if there is a problem, they [the workers] need to get out
and find other employment."
Mr. Anderson, who has received a lot of hate mail because of his stand,
calls the US policy "hypocritical." He says the government just "winks
and nods" when it comes to illegals working in hotels, food, or lawn
care. "Let's resolve this by giving them fair notice," he says.
However, those under arrest are often unquestionably in violation of
the law by using false Social Security Numbers (SSNs) or forged "green
cards." But the charge has hardly ever been used because of the number
of illegal workers. Mr. Lindsay says there are estimates of 7 million
to 11 million undocumented workers in the US.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, anyone could make up an SSN and no one
would pay attention, says Chris Hibbert of Computer Professionals for
Social Responsibility in Palo Alto, Calif.
By the 1990s, employees needed a matching name and number, unless their
employer turned a blind eye. Then, people with access to numbers, such
as bank employees or healthcare workers, started selling them for $20
to $100 apiece, he says. Recently, the Social Security Administration
arrested some of its own employees in Chicago for selling numbers to
illegal immigrants.
In 2000, the government arrested or indicted 219 people in 182 cases
for using falsified SSNs. Last year, there were 242 subjects in 207
cases, and overall the Social Security Administration said that about
21 million names did not match up with Social Security numbers for any
number of reasons - ranging from marriages to foreign names to fraud.
To pursue these cases - as well as other instances of fraud - there are
279 criminal investigators working for the Social Security inspector
general.
A changed world
Social Security investigators stress that it is the changed world since
Sept. 11 that is causing the sudden interest in immigrants'
documentation. "If someone can falsify documents and get a
high-security badge, they can potentially put a bomb on a plane or
anything else," says Dennis Lynch, special agent in charge of Social
Security's Strategic Enforcement Division. "We are talking issues of
protecting our critical infrastructure, including dams, bridges, and
nuclear power plants."
Yet the rush to secure the airports illustrates some of the
difficulties involved. Sometimes, for example, the documents that
federal agents are pouring over are not up to date. In Salt Lake City,
one person charged had left the airport for a construction job two
months prior to the raid. The charges against him were dropped - as
were those against pregnant women and mothers with newborns.
All this is part of larger changes taking place behind the scenes in
the nation's airports. It's not just the screeners - now federal
employees - who are under the microscope. Now, it's almost everyone who
carries a security badge. For example, under recently passed federal
legislation, anyone who handles baggage must be a US citizen.
This may have massive ramifications, since union officials say almost
80 percent of the baggage handlers in Los Angeles and San Francisco
don't qualify.
"All this sets a dangerous precedent, equating security with
citizenship," says Solange Bitol, an immigration lawyer with the
Service Employees International Union. "Many of these people are trying
to live the American dream and in many cases are even more patriotic."
For example, in Salt Lake City, one family had purchased a house with
money saved from the past five years. Now, they are likely to be
deported. "I don't see happy endings," says Mark Alvarez, an attorney
representing several of those arrested.
(c) Copyright 2002 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
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