Immigrant workers at airport face prison, deportation

Friday, Feb. 8, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

Severiano Lopez considered Carmen Reyes, 31, and Mireya Bravo, 27, his best employees.

The two worked at TGS Aviation, a Las Vegas company under contract by United Airlines. They had been vacuuming and scrubbing the kitchens, bathrooms and interiors of the airline's planes for about a year, Lopez said.

"They were fast, they did a good job, they worked hard," he said.

Now the women are facing up to five years in prison or deportation after being indicted with 25 others Wednesday on charges of giving false statements and documents to their employers to obtain their jobs at McCarran International Airport.

Nineteen of the defendants, including Reyes and Bravo, made their first appearances Thursday before a federal magistrate in U.S. District Court.

Their arrests stem from an investigation targeted at increasing airport security by multiple agencies, including the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI.

They also are two of 60,000 to 120,000 undocumented immigrants who come to Nevada to take jobs, according to estimates by immigrant groups and experts who study immigration.

And because they work at the airport, they have come under the spotlight.

"The casinos and restaurants are full of people who have passed false documents under the table to get their jobs," Lopez said. "Why isn't the government going after them?"

U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden said the arrests were made "... to prevent acts threatening public safety and national security."

However, there was no evidence linking any of the 19 to terrorism to date, Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said.

The two women weren't just good workers, but also mothers trying to raise their children, Lopez said: Reyes with 2- and 10-year-old daughters, and Bravo with a 1-year-old girl.

Maria Heraldez, Reyes' older sister, said she never thought she would see her sister in handcuffs and shackles.

"We've never done any damage to anyone; we've never broken any laws," she said.

Heraldez, who is a legal resident, said that her sister left Durango, Mexico, because the area holds little promise for women.

"There's corn and cattle, but men work in the fields. There's no work for a woman there," she said.

"Here, she hoped to buy a house for her family."

Alvaro Gonzalez was also in federal court Thursday afternoon, seeking a glimpse of his nephew, Reynaldo Gonzalez, another defendant.

Gonzalez said his 23-year-old nephew worked as a driver shuttling food to planes on the runway for Sky Chefs at McCarran the past three years.

His nephew has lived in the United States illegally for 10 years, he said, ineligible for residency or citizenship.

"He just wanted to work hard and take care of his mother in Guanajuato, Mexico, for whom he was saving up to buy a house," Gonzalez said.

"I wonder now, is working hard a crime?"

The investigation is one of many that have occurred in airports across the nation, including recently concluded ones in Washington, Oregon and Utah.

They have caught the attention of groups working on behalf of immigrants, including the Las Vegas-based Interfaith Council for Worker's Justice.

"This case shows the growing tension between the needs of the economy and the business community on the one hand and the law and law enforcement after Sept. 11," Mike Slater, executive director of the council, said.

"As different government agencies begin enforcing certain laws, sometimes for certain political gains, the undocumented worker is going to be increasingly caught in the middle," he said.

Most of the defendants -- including Reyes and Bravo -- were ordered released on their own recognizance on the indictments, but were held Thursday night by the INS, which planned to decide today whether they could post bond until deportation hearings are held.

Eight of the 27 indicted were still at large Thursday.