Effect of INS enforcement remains in question.

Effect of INS enforcement remains in question

Since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act went into effect four years ago, hundreds of Los Angeles County garment workers have have obtained amnesty and moved on to better jobs. But employee advocates and independent researchers contend the law has had little impact on the industry overall, because many of the workers who left their jobs have been replaced by new illegal immigrants who continue to arrive in Southern California.

And while the law also makes it illegal for an employer to knowingly hire an undocumented worker, employee representatives claim the law is rarely enforced.

"It's (illegal hiring) as high as it ever was," said Steve Nutter, western regional director of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. "The INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) has 50 agents covering all of Southern California. They're not a factor. Lack of paperwork (proving legal work status) has never been a problem in this industry."

Rebecca Morales, a labor scholar and former UCLA professor writing a book on Los Angeles employment patterns, said the effects of the 1986 act have been "inconsequential."

"If you were to start not with the workers, but with the jobs that pay so poorly, what we're seeing is an expansion of those types of jobs," she said. "Wherever you have those jobs, you're going to find illegal immigrants."

John Brechtel, assistant district director of the INS' Los Angeles district, said enforcement of the immigration act has cut the number of undocumented workers in the Los Angeles apparel industry to less than half of its work force.

The most recent available statistics estimated that in 1980 about 80 percent of the garment industry work force was illegal aliens. Brechtel said audits conducted by his department indicate the figure today is closer to 35 or 40 percent.

He added that he has more than 100 agents, but fewer than 50 work on employer sanctions in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

"There has been a decrease in the number of undocumenteds employed in L.A. County, particularly in the apparel industry," said Brechtel. "Prior to the act, it was an overwhelming percentage. It is still a problem, but not as much. The word is out. The employers know the law."

Duke Austin, spokesman for INS in Washington, D.C., said the number of people stopped trying to enter the United States illegally increased every year until 1987, when it began to decrease. Although the number of agents working on the border has risen, the number of people apprehended shrank from 1.6 million in 1986 to 1 million in 1990, Austin said.

He added that nationwide there have been 2 million inspections at work sites since June 1987, resulting in $18 million in immigration-related fines against 6,000 employers. But, he acknowledged, figures are not kept separately for specific industries.

"There has been some backfilling of people who got amnesty by undocumented aliens," Austin said. "There-may be a specific industry, and maybe apparel is one they're still working in. . . . We're not satisfied by any means. We're still faced with a burgeoning problem. The Immigration Reform and Control Act didn't solve the problem; it helped."

Maria Soldatenko, a student writing her UCLA doctoral dissertation on garment district sweatshops, said she has interviewed 20 sweatshop employees, done historical research and worked for one week in the garment district in 1989 as part of her project.

"The industry is based on immigrant workers, most here illegally. These are people who will take so little money for so much work. They are the only ones who will do that," Soldatenko said. Her week in a sweatshop was "like hell," she said.

"It was awful. We were working more than 40 hours a week. We had no breaks. I got sick after one week. I had planned to work a month, but I couldn't take it," said Soldatenko, who earned $9 working on a piece basis during her one week. She had trained for three months to learn to sew quickly.

She said her research so far has indicated that male sweatshop employees who obtain amnesty leave the industry, while female employees simply move up to better paying jobs with different employers in the same business.

According to the state Employment Development Department, there were 93,000 jobs in Los Angeles County apparel and textile manufacturing (excluding textile mill products) in November, 1990. That compares with 94,900 in November 1989, but reflects an increase from September and October of 1990.

Alice Callaghan, director of the Las Familias del Pueblo center for garment industry workers, said the law "hasn't had any effect on the industry."

Edna Bonacich, a sociology professor with the University of California at Riverside who is researching the Los Angeles apparel industry, said there continue to be high numbers of undocumented workers in the garment district.

"There is a division in the industry. There is a sweatshop sector and a non-sweatshop sector, and the non-sweatshop sector maybe is bigger," Bonacich said.

"In the sweatshop sector, absolutely the (undocumented workers) are being replaced, and the number of sweatshops is probably growing," she said. "There are lots of situations that are like prisons, real atrocities."

PHOTO : Inspections: Immigration and Naturalization Service officials say they have cut the number of undocumented workers