Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

9/10/01  News Report -- Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- More than 800 service industry workers in the Portland area will lose their jobs after a federal immigration audit found they lacked legal work papers, officials said Monday.

Hundreds of laid-off immigrants are expected to march through downtown Portland on Tuesday to protest the firings.

President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox last week discussed loosening immigration work rules during Fox's three-day visit, and the idea has support in Congress.

Some Portland workers who have been told they're losing their jobs say the move flies in the face of such efforts. "Bush and Fox are trying to reform immigration rules, but what's happening here in Portland betrays their effort," said Edgar Lopez, one of hundreds who learned last week they will be fired by Oct. 9.

The layoffs are the result of a routine, months-long audit of Portland's service industry, said Anthony Ho, special agent in charge of investigations in Portland for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Officials reviewed paperwork for 3,306 employees and discovered 834 - or 25 percent - are in violation of immigration law, he said.

"The whole idea behind this is to remove the magnet of employment. We hope that if the jobs aren't there, they'll go back to their home countries," he said.

The INS estimates there are about 50,000 illegal immigrants in Oregon.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 requires employers to check aliens' residency and work status and imposes penalties for companies that don't comply with the law. To work legally, an immigrant must be a permanent resident, U.S. citizen or have work authorization, as in the case of asylum seekers.

Ho said companies often hire illegal employees unknowingly because people provide fake documents. Some businesses look the other way, he said.

Amanda Bell, spokeswoman for Local 49 of the Service Employees International Union, said many immigrants have the necessary papers, but don't realize they must provide them.

"When people have limited English and literacy is a problem, they can honestly have legitimate paperwork and just don't know how to prove it," she said. "These workers are not criminals, they are parents of children, they are hard workers, they are taxpayers."

Eugenia Cortes, a Mexican national, said her family will be devastated by the layoffs.

Cortes and her husband, Efrain Solis, finally felt their lives - and their finances - were on track until they learned last week they would lose their jobs.

Both work as janitors cleaning Portland's biggest buildings and they had enrolled their three children in local schools.

"Why are they telling me after 4 1/2 years of service to them, that suddenly on this day I can't work for them anymore? What am I going to do now with my family, with our expenses?" said 32-year-old Cortes, who has lived in the U.S. for eight years.

"At this point, the truth is, we had almost been at a stable point with our expenses. This is a very strong blow for our family," she said.

Cortes said she and her husband knew there were problems with their paperwork, but they were working to get a legal status.

Bell, the union spokeswoman, said she expects several hundred workers to gather Tuesday to protest the INS audit.

Announcements explaining the layoffs have been aired on Spanish-language radio stations in Thomas, Wash., Portland and Woodburn - areas where there are large Hispanic communities.

Fliers were posted in churches and apartment buildings where many Hispanic families live and worship, she said.

Cortes said she won't let her family fall apart because of the layoffs.

"We're staying here and we're going to move forward," she said. "What we need right now is time to continue working and put our papers in order so we can prevent them from doing this."