License

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, November 21, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B03

The New Jersey Racing Commission plans to meet with state and federal agencies in a effort to tighten up its worker licensing procedures, after 70 Meadowlands Racetrack stable hands were taken into custody Tuesday as illegal aliens.

Bruno Verducci, assistant director of the commission, said Wednesday that except in obvious cases, Racing Commission workers cannot determine the authenticity of immigration papers presented by the workers.

Allen Kampel, a supervisory special agent for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said most of the workers taken into custody obtained licenses from the commission by using false immigration papers. The workers need the state licenses before they can be hired by trainers.

The INS investigation has now shifted to the trainers, Kampel said. The agency will try to determine whether they knowingly hired illegal aliens.

Verducci said that he would meet with immigration officials and state police to talk about teaching commission workers how to do a better job of spotting bogus documents.

Describing the current procedure, Verducci said: “If there is ever a question as to the identity of the individual seeking a license, or the credentials that he presents, that person is refered to the state police racetrack unit that is lodged at the backstretch of the track. So, that is the safety valve. If they don’t come back, then you know.”

Although the state’s five racetracks check workers commission licenses, horse trainers like small businesses are responsible for ensuring that the stable hands they hire are authorized to work, Verducci said.

The INS recognizes that it is hard for employers to determine the authenticity of resident-alien ards ndth orkthiauments that people present to them, Kampel said. The INS would not hold them responsible if they could show they made good-faith efforts to determine whether the employees are legal.

In the next phase of the investigation, Kampel said, the INS will check whether the trainers knowingly hired illegal workers or checked their documentation. The 1986 Immigration Reform Control Act mandated that employers fill out a special form verifying that each worker is authorized to work in this country.

If it can be proved that the employers either knowingly hired illegal workers or did not fill out the form, the employers could be fined, Kampel said. Fines could range from a minimum of $250 per illegal worker in a first offense by an employer to a maximum of $10,000 per employee, he said.

Meanwhile, the 70 stable hands detained Tuesday by the INS, with assistance from the Bergen County Sheriff’s Department and state police, were released pending deportation hearings.

Most of the stable hands are Mexican.

ID: 17361670 | Copyright © 1991, The Record (New Jersey)