INS Deports 52 Following Raid at Oxnard Plant : Immigration: Arrests came after audit of company’s employment records found that more than half involved phony documents.

U.S. immigration agents arrested 54 workers at an Oxnard manufacturing firm Tuesday morning, culminating a three-month investigation into counterfeit employment documents, authorities said.

Armed with a search warrant, 21 INS agents descended on Waterway industries in the 2200 block of Sturgis Road at 10 a.m.

Two of the people taken into custody were later released after relatives showed up at the Oxnard Border Patrol Station with papers validating their citizenship and their employment status, authorities said.

The other 52 people were loaded onto a bus Tuesday evening and taken to Tijuana, Mexico, said Michael Molloy, the Border Patrol agent in charge of the operation.

“They were all in pretty good spirits,” Molloy said. “After they got caught, they were a little unhappy. But they settled in once they realized where they were going.”

Executives at Waterway, which manufactures plastic pumps, valves and filters for swimming pools and hot tubs, refused to comment on the arrests.

Guadalupe Chico, whose husband works for the company, said that he and her sister were among those arrested. Her husband was later released, Chico said, but her sister, 23-year-old Maria Delgado, was deported.

“I feel bad for her,” Chico said. “She’s only been here for one year.”

Chico said that her sister, who had been employed at Waterway for seven months, will probably return to live with their parents in Mexico.

The INS began investigating Waterway in December after agents arrested four illegal immigrants employed by the company outside the building during a routine patrol of the area, Molloy said.

After the arrests, the INS audited the company’s employment records and discovered that more than half of its 124 employees had counterfeit documents.

Molloy said Waterway’s management was cooperative in the investigation and that he had no reason to believe that the company knew the employment documents were fake.

“It’s hard for employers to tell what is counterfeit,” he said. “It’s hard even for us to tell.”

Still, Molloy said his office will review the case to decide if the employer should be fined.

Since Oct. 1, he said, the Oxnard Border Patrol Station has opened investigations on 11 businesses. Molloy said nine have had their employee records audited, resulting in the deportation of more than 400 illegal immigrants, and three employers are expected to be fined for improper hiring practices.

In the 1991-92 fiscal year, 26 Ventura County employers were investigated for hiring undocumented workers, according to the INS. As a result, more than 600 people were deported, and eight employers were fined a total of $64,200.

Often, businesses are randomly selected by computer and assigned inspections, Molloy said.

Although Waterway lost nearly half its work force as a result of Tuesday’s arrests, the company remained open for business. One company executive told Molloy that the firm is not worried about refilling the 52 vacant positions.

“He said he didn’t think he would even have to advertise for the jobs,” Molloy said. The jobs pay between $4.25 and $10 an hour, he said.

Indeed, about half a dozen Oxnard residents who heard about the arrests were filling out job applications at Waterway Tuesday afternoon.

“I’ve been unemployed for four months,” said Alex Cardon, one of the applicants. “With a little luck, maybe I’ll get a job.”