INS cracks down on Sea-Tac security

Associated Press

SEATAC — Federal immigration officials have begun a review of 18,000 workers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to weed out any who might be working in the United States illegally.

The audit stems from growing concern about potential terrorist attacks, a Seattle newspaper reported Wednesday.

"The security of our airports is vitally important," said Robert Okin, deputy district director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Seattle office.

"In the wake of Sept. 11, we’re concerned that the employees who have access to sensitive areas of the airport, such as the tarmac, have a legal right to be working there," he said.

INS officials met last Tuesday with representatives of 40 of the 42 companies that have workers at the airport, partly to warn that if employers fail to purge payrolls of those working and residing in the United States illegally, the INS could detain and deport the employees.

Okin said the agency regularly meets with employers to educate them on the need to ensure that employees have legal immigration status, but this audit stems from concerns about airport safety.

The INS and employers are scouring employment records, including I-9 forms that certify a worker’s citizenship.

Okin said the INS is primarily concerned that employees have legal immigration status and a legitimate right to work at the airport, and that employers properly collected the required information about job applicants.

INS officials said it’s possible that dozens of employees — security screeners, baggage handlers, maintenance and food-concession workers — could lose jobs because of the checks. Any who have committed crimes by knowingly violating immigration laws could be arrested and ultimately deported.

Many of the reviews will be completed in two to three weeks.

INS officials said sweeping raids at Sea-Tac are unlikely. The agency prefers that the companies weed out unauthorized workers to limit the number of illegal immigrants the agency would have to detain and possibly deport.

Last month, an INS audit of security contractor Huntleigh USA led to the Oct. 12 arrest of a Sea-Tac security screener using the name of Regina Angulo-Barrios. INS agents said the woman, identified in court documents as Leonor Pretelt, had overstayed a tourist visa and bought a fake residency card to get hired by Huntleigh.

She pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of using false identification. Pretelt’s lawyer, Tom Hillier, said she is not a security risk.

Jessica Neal, a Huntleigh spokeswoman in St. Louis, said last month that Pretelt’s hiring was an isolated incident and she presented forged documents.

The president of one Seattle-area employer of airport security screeners, Olympic Security Services, said he believes his company has nothing to fear from a review of its employee immigration records.

"They took all the information that we had, and they’re doing an evaluation on it," said Mark Vinson. "Based on the information we have, I don’t see that we have a problem on our end."

INS officials say it’s unlikely that employees who violate immigration laws have anything to do with terrorism. But the presence of just one illegal worker could bring disastrous results, they said.