INS Declares Crackdown on Illegal Aliens a Success at Del Mar Race Track

DEL MAR —  U.S. immigration officials Monday proclaimed efforts to crack down on the employment of illegal aliens at the race track here a success.

Despite the upbeat tone of a race track press conference, however, trainers’ representatives said that many horsemen still feel bitter that the Immigration and Naturalization Service has spotlighted their industry in an increasingly high-profile campaign against illegal immigration.

Last year, the INS conducted a series of raids at Southern California race tracks, netting about 300 illegal workers and threatening future crackdowns if trainers did not attempt to hire U.S. citizens for backstretch jobs. At Del Mar, trainers boycotted racing for a day after INS agents seized 123 aliens and prompted hundreds more to flee their positions as grooms, exercise riders and hot-walkers.

In the aftermath of the raids, the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Assn., which represents thoroughbred owners and trainers, struck a compromise with federal authorities, agreeing to participate in a temporary worker program.

Under the program, the INS issued 363 temporary work visas for use at Del Mar, Santa Anita and Hollywood Park tracks. In return, the trainers agreed to gradually curtail their reliance on illegal aliens and recruit and train U.S. citizens or legal residents for jobs at the track. To accomplish that, the horsemen’s group set up two-week training schools.

On Monday, immigration and track officials announced that the program and related enforcement efforts had all but eliminated the use of illegal workers at Del Mar.

Alan Eliason, Border Patrol chief for the San Diego region, said that only 20 aliens were seized during the 1986 race meet, which ends Wednesday.

Doug Atkins, secretary of the horsemen’s association, said there are “a lot of trainers who aren’t too happy with this new system. But they accept it as a fact of life.”