Border squeeze funnels aliens to Vegas

Kim Smith

Sunday, Dec. 5, 1999 | 9:34 a.m.

A border crackdown in California and Texas is funneling tens of thousands of illegal immigrants into Arizona and then north to Las Vegas, where a booming economy is making the city an increasingly popular destination.

Nevada is now home to 274,000 immigrants and approximately 55,000 of those are here illegally, said Jeff Passel, principal research associate with the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C.

In a September report, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Clark County had nearly 200,000 Hispanic residents in 1998, up 139 percent from the 1990 census. That made Las Vegas home to the fastest-growing Hispanic population of any metropolitan area in the country.

"Nevada's economy is booming so there is a lot of job growth there," Passel said. "If you look at the historical evidence, migration is driven by the local economy and immigrants are more mobile and responsive to economic conditions than natives are."

They are also responsive to U.S. Border Patrol tactics. And a recent tightening of border crossing points in California and Texas appears to be channeling a growing stream of immigrants toward Las Vegas.

The Border Patrol has dramatically increased its presence in its El Centro, Calif., San Diego and El Paso, Texas, sectors, essentially funneling immigrants into Arizona and up through Nevada.

For example, in the El Centro sector, which covers 76 miles of border just east of San Diego, the number of agents has risen from less than 200 to more than 400 over the last five years, said Henry Rolon, Border Patrol public information officer.

But little has been done to stem the flow once the immigrants get north of the border.

Nevada doesn't even have a U.S. Border Patrol office, said Al Casillas, public information officer for the Border Patrol in Yuma, Ariz.

If Metro Police or the Nevada Highway Patrol stops a carload of illegal immigrants, they will be questioned by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, but whether the Border Patrol picks them up or not depends on the availability of officers in Blythe, Calif. or Yuma.

"It all depends on supply and demand -- the number of officers available and the distance involved," Casillas said. "We'll make a good effort. If they have a vanload we'll try to pick them up, but if we can't send anyone out, they'll have to cut them loose."

Malena Burnett, founder of the Fair Treatment for Immigrants advocacy group in Las Vegas, said many immigrants settle in Las Vegas because they know the chances for arrest are much slimmer than in larger cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles.

"The immigration problem is pervasive throughout the (Las Vegas) Valley and the immigration service is ill-equipped to handle it," Burnett said. "They find one group and chase 10 people out of the country and across the street there's 50 more that they don't get. Then, the original 10 are right back."

Steve Usiak, assistant officer in charge of the Las Vegas INS office, readily admits his office can't keep up with the crush of illegal immigrants flocking to Southern Nevada.

The Las Vegas INS office has roughly the same staff as it did 10 years ago, despite the fact that within the last five years agents have seen a 49 percent increase in the number of illegal immigrants apprehended, Usiak said.

In 1999 2,913 illegal aliens were apprehended by Las Vegas INS agents, compared to 1,486 in 1995. In addition, the INS has seen dramatic increases in the number of criminal aliens arrested, the number of fraud cases probed and the number of employers investigated for hiring illegal immigrants.

"We're not keeping up with the population growth, most definitely," Usiak said.

Usiak said illegal immigrants easily find jobs in Las Vegas in construction, landscaping, small hotels and motels and restaurants.

"There's lots of work here and that brings the good and the bad, those people who are here to work and the criminal alien," Usiak said.

Whether they are "good or bad," immigrants from Mexico are dramatically changing the face of Las Vegas.

The transformation might be most obvious in the Clark County School District.

Marilyn Thieme, a facilitator for Sunrise Acres Elementary School's English Language Learners program, has witnessed the phenomenal influx of Spanish-speaking students in the last six years.

Since the 1992-1993 school year the district's total enrollment has increased 50 percent. But during the same time frame, the number of students enrolled in its English Language Learners program jumped 241 percent, Thieme said. This year, 27,858 students, or nearly 14 percent of the district's 203,777 students, are in the English program.

Compounding the problem, many of the students come from small Mexican farming villages or "rancherias" and are illiterate in Spanish on top of not being able to speak English, Thieme said.

"The parents are so anxious for their kids to learn English that they are sometimes the strongest detractors of bilingual education," Thieme said. "They sometimes feel as though we are holding their child back by teaching them in Spanish."

Whether the students are in the country illegally isn't an issue for the school district.

"Our goal is to educate children no matter who they are," Thieme said. "If we deny students an education based on their immigration then we would have a lot of children on our streets."

Burnett said there are plenty of reasons for immigrants to choose Las Vegas over other Southwestern cities.

"The living conditions in Vegas aren't as harsh as they are in downtown L.A.," she said. "It's easy to get around in the valley and rent is still inexpensive."

Most of the immigrants who come into the country illegally from Mexico are lucky to have a sixth grade education and Las Vegas has plenty of jobs that require little education or skill.

"It's not your average middle or higher classes coming here," Burnett said.

Despite the valley's appeal for illegal aliens, it also has its drawbacks.

Burnett said there are plenty of people in Las Vegas who are taking advantage of illegal aliens.

Undocumented Hispanic construction workers who would be paid $15 an hour plus benefits if they were Anglo are being paid $6 if they are lucky, Burnett said. Others are paid based on the number of houses or units they complete in a given time, forcing some to work weekends without the benefit of overtime.

"They don't know the difference, though," Burnett said. "This is heaven compared to where they came from. They don't have any idea what they're entitled to."

Five dollars an hour is a lot better than the $5 a day they are used to receiving, Burnett said.

Even if they knew enough to complain, they wouldn't for fear of being reported to the INS, Burnett said.

The immigration "problem" isn't being solved because American businesses don't want it to be, Burnett said.

"It's convenient for them to have a labor pool and not have to pay benefits," Burnett said. "We are a necessary evil. They want us to be here, but they want us to be invisible, underground. When we're no longer convenient, they dispose of us.

"I call my people the Pampers, they use them and then they dispose of them."

Steve Holloway, executive vice president of Associated General Contractors, conceded there is some exploitation going on.

"There are still a lot of unlicensed contractors around so you're going to have a lot of them paying by the day or trying to rip them off if they can," Holloway said. "They are the ones that need to be cracked down on because they give the whole industry a bad rap.

Arte Nathan, vice president of the human resources department at the Bellagio hotel-casino, said the gaming industry is also careful when hiring new personnel.

"If we've found five questionable documents in five years that's a lot and that's at all of the Mirage resorts," Nathan said. "The word is out to all employers. We're not going to get caught with our pants down."

Passel said that until the U.S. government becomes willing to step on "some very powerful toes," the flood of immigrants will continue. Right now, however, the government seems unwilling to consistently pursue employers who hire illegal immigrants.

It's not just in the Southwest, either, Passel said.

Over the past five years illegal immigrants have slowly begun moving into the South and Midwest to work in meat processing plants, textile factories and tobacco fields, Passel said.

"But, we can't not enforce the border," Passel said. "Now we need to decide if we have enough resources to broaden our efforts on the border -- and if we want to."

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