Thursday, August 22, 1996

INS Rounds Up 900 Illegal Workers in Austin Area

By CHIP BROWN
Associated Press

AUSTIN - A healthy economy loaded with huge construction projects has helped attract roughly 10,000 illegal workers to the Austin area, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The INS has arrested and deported roughly 900 illegal workers in and around the state capital over the past 10 days.

"Austin is an area that is certainly growing at a higher percentage than other cities in the state," INS spokesman Ray Dudley, of San Antonio, said Wednesday.

"The city's undergoing a lot of infrastructure development in terms of roadwork, housing and computer companies," he said.

"It's common knowledge among illegals on the street that if you are willing to house temporarily, Austin is the place to be because they will hire you right off the curb."

Texas AFL-CIO President Joe Gunn said the problem causes the government to lose tax money and keeps qualified workers from getting good-paying jobs.

"I don't doubt there's 10,000 illegal workers here," said Gunn, who's based in Austin. "These jobs would be $12 to $15 an hour jobs to good, hard-working people. But it's not just losing our jobs, it's exploitation of the illegal workers too.

"This is something we used to try to fight, but now the problem is so big, the unions just can't fight it," Gunn said. "It's got to be the INS that fights it."

Austin Mayor Bruce Todd didn't immediately return telephone calls to his office from The Associated Press.

Since Aug. 12, the INS has increased its presence in Austin from eight investigators to more than 20, including five U.S. Border Patrol agents from San Antonio.

Dudley said the increased efforts were the result, primarily, of complaints from businesses turning in competitors for hiring illegal workers.

Huge housing and high-tech construction projects have been the main targets for the INS. Other businesses that have been swept in Austin and in neighboring Taylor and Round Rock include restaurants, dry cleaners, landscaping, poultry plants and bedding companies, Dudley said.

More than 300 illegal workers have been picked up by the INS over the past nine days at Sun City Georgetown, a retirement community being built 25 miles north of Austin, Dudley said.

"The contractors are calling and saying they are being driven out of business because their competitors are paying day wages - cash at the end of the day - without paying any Social Security tax or benefits for those employees," Dudley said.

Sun City officials said the illegal workers were hired by contractors.

"We do have a paragraph in our contract with all of our trade contractors that they must employ people who are qualified to work in the United States," said Connie Watson, spokeswoman for Sun City.

"We do have a monthly meeting with our trade contractors and this will now be a topic that we talk about - how to do a proper check. Employers don't always know," she said.

Employers who fail to provide proof that an employee is qualified to work in the U.S. are subject to fines up to $600 per employee.

Those who purposely employ an illegal worker are subject to fines up to $2,000, and repeat offenders could face up to six months in jail, Dudley said.

Illegal workers from Mexico who are reprimanded by the INS are usually deported within 24 hours and are generally required to pay $28 for the bus trip to Laredo, Dudley said.

"We have three or four buses a day from Austin down to Laredo," Dudley said.

Dudley said any illegal worker caught with counterfeit documentation will be prosecuted and prohibited from ever returning to the U.S.

"If they come back, it could be up to two years in jail," he said.