Thread: Audit leads to mass firings

Updated: Thursday, January 14, 2010 12:48 PM

Audit leads to mass firings

Immigration and Customs Enforcement targets 190 companies around the West

By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press

A Washington state tree fruit company is among the first of 190 West Coast businesses the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has targeted for workforce audits.

A total of 33 companies in Washington, 150 in California, four in Idaho and three in Oregon are being audited by the federal agency to determine if they knowingly hired illegal aliens.

The Washington company was forced to dismiss hundreds of employees whose paperwork was not in order. Neither the company nor ICE officials would specify the exact number of terminations, but reports range from a few hundred to 800.

The companies know they are being audited because they are notified by the agency, said Lorie Dankers, ICE spokeswoman in Seattle.

ICE officials announced in November that 1,000 companies would be audited nationwide, Dankers said.

Last week, Gebbers Farms of Brewster, Wash., issued a statement saying it laid off employees in response to the ICE audit. The company said ICE advised it that some of its employees were not authorized to work in the United States based on documentation the employees provided in connection with their I-9 forms.

Those are forms employees fill out when they are hired to verify their employment eligibility.

Gebbers officials in Brewster and the company's Wenatchee attorney declined to comment.

Dankers said she cannot talk about specific companies being audited or say what industries they cover. She said ICE is focusing on employers believed to knowingly employ unlawful workers.

Some of the cases could result in civil fines, criminal charges or the loss of eligibility for federal contracts, she said.

Companies audited were chosen based on leads, public safety or national security, she said.

Doug England, a Chelan County, Wash., commissioner and manager of Manson Fruit Cooperative, said he had been told Gebbers fired 800 people.

"Gebbers is a good company. It is well run. It has spent extra time and effort making sure it does things right," England said. "So the concern in the industry is what does this mean for small growers who don't have those resources."

Around Dec. 23, Gebbers was given a list of people the company had to terminate within 10 days or face fines of $1,000 per person per day, said a source who requested anonymity. The company has sufficient packing line labor but is down to 40 pruners when it normally has 600 this time of year, the source said.

Dankers would not comment on those allegations, but said ICE identifies discrepancies on I-9 forms and works with companies to rectify them.

Gebbers Farms traces its roots to 1885 and has 5,000 acres of company-owned apple and cherry orchards.

Linda Dezellem, principal of Brewster middle and high school, said people at a Jan. 11 school board meeting said Gebbers issued 100 to 300 termination letters.

Robert Adams, administrative assistant at Okanogan County WorkSource, an office of state Employment Security, said Gebbers had not placed an order for more workers. He said there was a sign on the door of the Gebbers warehouse Monday, Jan. 11, stating that it was not hiring.

Tom Riggan, general manager of Chelan Fresh Marketing, through which Gebbers sells its fruit, said Gebbers' apple packing was "really down" for three or four days and then back up.

"They are not disclosing anything, even to me, even though we're partners," Riggan said of Gebbers. "I know some of the people who work up there. They're great people and all of a sudden out of a job. I always assumed they're citizens."

Kirk Mayer, manager of Washington Growers Clearing House Association in Wenatchee, said businesses can be hurt if they lose significant numbers of workers at critical times.

He said he'd heard that some of the people who were dismissed had left the area. He said some that the audit caught may have been seasonal workers who had already left some time ago.

Mike Gempler, executive director of Washington Growers League in Yakima, said audits seem more likely during the Obama administration.

"It's like a return to the Clinton administration policies of enforcement at the employer level rather than finding individuals here illegally," he said.

The league is an advocate for agricultural employers on labor issues.

Dankers said she does not know what happens to employees who are dismissed.

Mayer and Dankers said mismatches can occur on I-9 forms if people use variations of their names on different places on the form.

I-9 forms require job applicants to pick between several documents for verification of their citizen or immigration status.

http://oneoldvet.com/

http://www.capitalpress.com/content/djw-ICE-NEW-011510

Mayer and Dankers said mismatches can occur on I-9 forms if people use variations of their names on different places on the form.

So Catherine becomes Kathryn or Katherine all on one form? Give me a break! If you don't know your own name, it should be obvious that the identity was purchased and not rehearsed well enough.

Massive firings in Brewster, and a big debate about illegal immigration

The firings of about 550 people at Gebbers Farms are raising worries about more audits and firings across Central Washington, including in Yakima, where much of the agricultural economy depends on an illegal work force.

By Melissa Sánchez

Yakima Herald-Republic



BREWSTER, Okanogan County — The letters came on a Wednesday, hand-delivered to hundreds of field and warehouse workers two days before Christmas.

Each contained a four-sentence explanation beneath the company's letterhead.

Federal immigration authorities had alerted Gebbers Farms that a number of its employees' hiring forms were suspect. Unless those employees could prove they were in this country legally, the company would let them go.

Many couldn't. Like the vast majority of America's agricultural work force, they were illegal immigrants who used fake documents to get jobs picking and packing fruit, in this case in and around this small town on the Columbia River north of Wenatchee.

Five days later, the company dismissed an estimated 550 workers — equal to about a quarter of Brewster's population. It was the biggest firing of its kind ever seen in Washington. And former workers say the letters and firings are still coming.

What's happened at Gebbers Farms has been felt far beyond this shaken community. It's raising worries about more audits and firings across Central Washington, where much of the agricultural economy depends on an illegal work force.

"If the entire industry was audited it'd be impossible to fill all of the jobs," says Mike Gempler, executive director of the Washington Growers League.

With the firings, the complexity of illegal immigrants in the work force becomes starkly clear.

Other immigrants — some legal and some not — have learned of the sudden job openings and are arriving to fill the void. Some of the applicants may not be new at all.

"I was thinking about changing the Social Security number I use and reapplying," says Antonio Sanchez, a 51-year-old former Gebbers orchard worker. "I don't know what to do."

Five generations of the Gebbers family have farmed here along the Columbia River. The company runs more than 5,000 acres of apples and cherries, including one of the world's largest contiguous orchards. Its products are marketed internationally.

"This town exists because of them," says Esteban Camacho, who manages a local bakery and like most Mexican immigrants here has worked for Gebbers.

By most accounts, the company is well thought of. It built housing and soccer fields for its workers and, unlike many other growers, provides stable year-round work.

Rumors about the firings abound in Brewster, but details remain scarce.

Lorie Dankers, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Seattle, says she can't say anything about the incident at Gebbers or even confirm her agency conducted an audit.

Industry officials say ICE has audited a half-dozen smaller Washington growers in recent years. The only other known massive firing prompted by an ICE audit was last year at American Apparel, a Los Angeles-based garment company.

ICE first notified Gebbers in 2008 that it had been audited and that it needed to take action, according to industry officials. Gebbers acknowledged the audit in a brief statement dated the day of the firings. The statement closed with: "Gebbers Farms will continue to welcome workers of all backgrounds with proper work authorization."

Since then, company officials have declined to speak publicly about the situation. Even Brewster's mayor says he's had trouble finding out what happened.

Obama shift to audits

What happened at Gebbers reflects a change in strategy under President Obama's administration, which is shifting ICE's focus away from targeting illegal immigrants and instead focusing on those who hire them.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors tougher enforcement, sees Obama scaling back efforts to crack down on illegal immigration by emphasizing audits instead of workplace raids.

Immigrant-rights advocates call audits the more humane of the two approaches.

"This is not to say this new approach does not create hardship," says Matt Adams, legal adviser for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle. "But I think if the government is going to enforce the laws that are on the books, they should be given credit for doing it in a way that is not tearing families apart."

Thirty-three Washington companies were audited last year, and ICE spokeswoman Dankers says employers can expect more to come.

"We know that changing the behavior of employers to ensure they hire a legal work force doesn't happen overnight," she says. "We want employers to know that regardless of size and industry or your location and the type of business you have, the federal government expects these businesses to comply with the law."

Few growers will speak openly about the issue. Bob Brody, who owns King Blossom Natural, a 344-acre organic apple orchard in Brewster, is one of them.

"What happened at Gebbers — it fries my brain sometimes," says Brody, adding that he shouldn't have to verify whether a worker's status is legitimate.

He says every one of his employees, except for his office manager, is Latino. "Americans don't stop by and ask for jobs right now," Brody says. "There is a 10 percent unemployment rate. And I've not had a single U.S. American stop by and ask for a job."

On many evenings, the conversation between Daniel and Angelica Aguilar turns to just that. The recently dismissed couple and their toddler daughter live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment near the center of Brewster.

"During the cherry-picking season, there's maybe 2,200 of us working in the orchards," says Daniel Aguilar, 26. "Of those, there wasn't a single white American.

"Why does it bother them that we're doing the work they don't want to do?"

In part, the Gebbers firings have produced the desired effect. Of the dozen or so families in Brewster interviewed by the Yakima Herald-Republic, about half say they plan to return to Mexico. And everybody knew someone who had already left.

"What's the point of staying? There are no jobs," says one woman, who identified herself only as Mariela in fear of being deported.

"Fight the good fight"

But for every illegal immigrant who leaves, there seems to be another one willing to risk his luck.

Before dawn one recent foggy Tuesday, groups of men waited in the cold for Gebbers vans to pick them up for work pruning apple trees.

"I just got a job here," says one young man who came from Los Angeles after learning about the sudden openings. He would not identify himself.

The others laughed nervously. "Are there supposed to be more audits?" one called out, before saying he needed to find a better Social Security number.

The presence of new workers who are here illegally has created some resentment among those who were laid off. But some have a hard time blaming their fellow countrymen.

"It's not their fault they're working," says Janeth Hernandez, who doesn't know how her family will make the rent this month. "They have to fight the good fight, too, just like us."

The December firings clearly disrupted the Gebbers operation, says Dan Fazio, the Washington State Farm Bureau's director of employment services.

"It's wrong for the administration to be doing raids or ... audits without investing time and energy into a functional guest-worker program," says Fazio, noting that growers can't compete with lower wages in Chile and China.

ICE encourages the companies it audits to use the federal E-Verify system, which allows employers to check whether new hires are legally authorized to work, Dankers says.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which operates E-Verify, says no companies in Brewster use it. Industry leaders say most growers are reluctant because the program won't give them an answer they like.

And in politically conservative Eastern Washington, that doesn't gain them many supporters. Some people, including the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and Grassroots on Fire, blame the growers for attracting illegal immigrants.

"They want the illegals to disappear and they want the employers that hire illegals to be put in jail," the farm bureau's Fazio says. "We want to assure these people that farmers don't want illegals more than any other citizen ...

"But when you ask these people, 'Do you want to have your apples from China?' they always respond, 'No, we'd like American apples.' "

U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, says it doesn't have to be an either-or issue.

"First we have to realize that we have to secure our borders," Hastings says. "The nature of our agriculture industry requires a migrant labor force, and ... the best way to address that is with a workable guest-worker program."

Few Washington growers use the current guest-worker program, which they consider expensive and cumbersome.

The Growers League, meanwhile, supports a bill that would create a path toward legal status for agricultural workers as well as revise the guest-worker program.

"Most difficult times"

In Brewster, the next six weeks will see a tense waiting game for former Gebbers employees. The company has given those who live in a series of camps deep inside its orchards until the end of March to vacate. School officials are bracing for the loss of state funding that comes with each of the children of the fired workers. Food-bank volunteers say they're seeing plenty of new faces.

Despite what happened, few former employees complain about the company. They just want their jobs back. The rumor these days is that in March they'll be rehired.

"Fifteen years I've worked for this company," says one man, who declined to give his name for fear of losing his housing. "I still have some hope that maybe by March everything will get sorted out. In the meantime, these are the most difficult times."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

""What happened at Gebbers — it fries my brain sometimes," says Brody, adding that he shouldn't have to verify whether a worker's status is legitimate.

"He says every one of his employees, except for his office manager, is Latino. "Americans don't stop by and ask for jobs right now," Brody says. "There is a 10 percent unemployment rate. And I've not had a single U.S. American stop by and ask for a job.""

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1. How would you know whether or not you've had a single "US American stop by and ask for a job" since you aren't verifying citizenship"? Oh! I know, you CAN tell the difference between an illegal alien and a US citizen by looking at them, after all can't you?

2. And what is a "US American"? Is there some other kind? OH NO!! These are globalists who want to turn all of North, Central and South America into a nation called The Americas and call us all Americans and then hyphenate us as US-American, Center-American, and South American!

3. Put these no good low-down lying globalist pond scum remnants in the soup line. If we're going to eat foreign picked apples, we might as well just eat the real deal from Chile, until we have a "US American Patriot" in the apple business.

4. You fry MY brains with your double-speak, dishonest, treasonous illegal illegal alien hiring and belly-aching.

"I was thinking about changing the Social Security number I use and reapplying," says Antonio Sanchez, a 51-year-old former Gebbers orchard worker. "I don't know what to do."


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

THIS IS CRIMINAL!!!!!!!!!

The others laughed nervously. "Are there supposed to be more audits?" one called out, before saying he needed to find a better Social Security number.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

this makes me SICK!!!!!

He says every one of his employees, except for his office manager, is Latino. "Americans don't stop by and ask for jobs right now," Brody says. "There is a 10 percent unemployment rate. And I've not had a single U.S. American stop by and ask for a job."

Probably because they don't speak SPANISH!!!

"I was thinking about changing the Social Security number I use and reapplying," says Antonio Sanchez, a 51-year-old former Gebbers orchard worker. "I don't know what to do."

This is exactly why illegal invaders, once identified, must be arrested and deported! They will simply go on to the next job with another fake or stolen SS number, or simply re-apply at the very same location with a different number.

And I'll tell you what you can do sanchez. You can go home!

It's Simple :

"HEAVY FINES and FELONY JAIL time for the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS! Felony Conviction and Deportation for the ILLEGALS!"

Originally Posted by HippieChick

The others laughed nervously. "Are there supposed to be more audits?" one called out, before saying he needed to find a better Social Security number.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

this makes me SICK!!!!!

Yeah...it really is astonishing, the arrogance and indifference these invaders display isn't it. It's just one big game to them, with our very own government allowing the invader to stay one step ahead of their audits and so called enforcement measures.

It should be enough to make every American sick with outrage!

We need to start fining these employers a substantial amount. They know they're violating the law against hiring illegals, yet they do it anyway. Anyone who's watched the show "Dirty Jobs" knows there are simply no jobs Americans won't do, as long as they don't need to live below the poverty level to do so. If this employer would pay a living wage and benefits, he would have no problem finding citizen employees. We need to make it too expensive to hire cheap labor.