Raid Led to Bakery’s Failure, Ex-Owners Say

The new project that helps employers find authorized workers came too late for Sharon and Bernie Galasso.

The Galassos are former owners of Bivona Bakery, a Santa Ana shop that has had an unusual run-in with the INS. Their 64-employee shop was inspected by immigration agents in January.

As the Galassos tell the rest of the story, INS agents later told them that 42 employees were not authorized to work. So in the next few weeks, the Galassos dismissed 17 workers, took INS-sponsored training on how to detect fake work papers, and then hired a dozen new workers.

But in March, the INS revisited Bivona Bakery and took away 21 workers in handcuffs--including the dozen new hires. Bereft of most of their production staff, the Galassos say they were forced to go out of business in mid-April.

Sharon Galasso blames the loss of their 4-year-old bakery on their troubles with government agencies. She says she initially hired most of her employees through referrals from the Santa Ana Economic Development Department, so she assumed the workers were authorized.

She complains that the INS didn’t help her much either, saying that the agency refused to screen the dozen new hires when she asked.

But John Brechtel, the INS’s acting officer in charge in Orange County, says there’s more to the story. What triggered the raid at Bivona, he said, was evidence that the employer was knowingly employing unauthorized workers. The Galassos deny that.

Brechtel also says his office did try to help the Galassos by providing them training that would enable them to spot fake work documents.

He says agency policy prevents him from verifying the status of new hires for employers--a service that is only available to the 230 employers who last year signed up for the work site verification test. Bivona Bakery did not.

Brechtel adds: Regardless of where they got the referrals for job candidates, it’s up to the employer to make every effort to verify a worker’s legal status. “I just don’t think they took due care,” Brechtel says of the Galassos.

The Galassos say they are taking their complaints to Congress.

Don Lee covers workplace issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at don.lee@latimes.com