Eisenhower workers abandon jobs amid immigration probe

By ERIN COX, Staff Writer
Published August 03, 2008

Workers at a second county-owned golf course have abandoned their jobs after managers announced the county was auditing their immigration status.

The flight from Eisenhower Golf Course in Crownsville last week followed a similar scenario that unfolded at the other county-owned facility, Compass Pointe Golf Course in Pasadena.

"Some voluntarily saw fit not to return to their jobs the next day, and we haven't heard from them since," confirmed Rich Katz, senior vice president of Billy Casper Golf, the Northern Virginia company that manages both courses for the county.

Workers fleeing the courses have drawn the suspicion of a county administration that vowed to sever ties with any company that knowingly employed illegal immigrants.

"Why would they tell the people that they were going to hand over immigration information and then allow them to disappear into the ether?" County Administrative Officer Dennis Callahan said Friday, later adding, "For some reason, management felt compelled to warn employees to get out of Dodge."

County police scheduled a meeting for tomorrow with Billy Casper Golf to allow the company to prove all employees were legally permitted to work in the United States.

The investigation is the first since the county instituted a zero-tolerance policy about county contractors employing illegal immigrants. No contracts have been revoked since County Executive John R. Leopold issued the executive order creating the policy last August.

Mr. Katz said the company was "conducting a thorough review" of all employees at Compass Pointe, and previously said in a statement that the company's policy is to abide by immigration law.

Billy Casper has an eight-year, $1.4 million contract to manage the county golf courses. Mr. Callahan said the county would walk away from the deal if Billy Casper knowingly or negligently hired illegal immigrants.

"Let's say five people left. We want to see the documents for those five people," Mr. Callahan said. "We want to make sure they did their due diligence. If someone handed them fake paperwork and they couldn't tell, we're not going to hold that against them. But if they didn't give them any paperwork, that's a different story."

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