Illegal immigrants at sub base allowed to return to Mexico
By Marisa Taylor
STAFF WRITER

January 29, 2002

San Diego, CA - Ten illegal immigrants who were working at the [top secret classified] Point Loma Navy submarine base were detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents Sunday.

The immigrants, all from Mexico, were taken into custody while working at an empty dry dock.

Agents with the Immigration and Naturalization Service interviewed the immigrants and decided not to open a criminal investigation. Instead, the agency recorded their arrests and is allowing them to return to Mexico (fat chance they will!).

Immigration officials said the workers had used counterfeit green cards (a felony) to get jobs with a Navy subcontractor, Coastal Coatings. Some also had driver's licenses, said Juan Loza, the president of the company.

Most of the employees were chipping and painting the dock and several had worked for the company for more than a year.

About 150 Coastal Coatings employees are working at the Navy site. Loza said his company has asked for all the appropriate immigration documents and filled out the necessary INS paperwork.

"We did everything that is required," he said. "We followed the law."

Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for INS in San Diego, said investigators concluded that Coastal Coatings complied with immigration laws.

Loza said employers have to be careful because if they scrutinize employees too closely they can be sued for discrimination.

Loza said his company submitted a "security list" to the Navy that included his employees' names and their personal identification information.

"The Navy has access to that information," Loza said. "They approve the list." Navy Commander Jim Green confirmed the company provided the security list to Navy personnel, who also followed normal procedures.

"Now we're looking into whether there was a problem and if there was a problem, how it occurred," Green said.

Marisa Taylor: (619) 293-1020; marisa.taylor@uniontrib.com

Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.