Illegal Aliens Employment

The deaf peddlers at Los Angeles International Airport know all about New York City and the bad jefes who did business there, the "king peddlers" who allegedly kept more than 50 Mexican immigrants in crowded apartments as virtual indentured servants. Asked about the New York trinket-selling operation of the Paoletti family, one of the Los Angeles peddlers wrote in a reporter's notebook: "No me gusta N.Y." (I don't like New York.

"100 Beautiful Girls!" beckoned the blinking marquee at the downtown dance hall. Inside, however, as Latin rhythms blared from the dance floor, only a smattering of hostesses could be seen entertaining their customers at the soft-drink bar. Dating back decades to the dime-a-dance era, clubs like this one have come to cater to a primarily Latino clientele and to depend on the illegal immigrant work force for their hostesses.

As one of eight children in a poor northern Thai family, Rungthiwa McAllister had two visions of her future: In one, she was bent over in a rice paddy under the blistering sun, standing ankle-deep in mud from dawn until dusk to eke out a meager living, just as her parents did. In the other, she was a glamorous airline hostess jetting off to exotic places. Neither scenario came true.

Federal agents swooped in on three suspected sweatshops and arrested 55 people early Wednesday, including 39 Thai workers who authorities suspect were toiling to pay off travel debts to professional smugglers. Investigators from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Department of Labor acted jointly on one of many tips received by the INS since the highly publicized shutdown of a clandestine garment factory in El Monte on Aug. 2.

Claiming U.S. immigration policy is "broken and needs to be fixed," the AFL-CIO on Wednesday called for a new amnesty for millions of undocumented workers and the repeal of the 1986 law that criminalized hiring them. The position, adopted unanimously by the federation's executive council at its winter meeting in New Orleans, represents a dramatic shift for the AFL-CIO, which backed the so-called employer sanctions law 15 years ago.

Half a dozen Thai and Laotian nationals were indicted Friday on charges that they harbored and employed illegal immigrants at three underground Los Angeles "sweatshops." A total of 51 illegal immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Thailand and Laos worked at the three garment factories raided Aug. 23 by U.S. immigration agents and Department of Labor officials, authorities said. Indicted were Tawach and Kiriya Hirunpolkul, who officials say ran a factory on the Eastside at 1643 N.

Despite opposition from a vocal minority who briefly disrupted the NAACP's national convention, the civil rights group Wednesday approved a resolution calling for a repeal of penalties against employers who hire illegal immigrant workers. The vote gives a major boost to the drive to abolish employer sanctions and helps salve wounds that have developed in the relationship between the NAACP and Latino groups.

Last month, the city of Laguna Beach opened an outdoor hiring hall on a remote stretch of Laguna Canyon Road in hopes of luring Latino dayworkers away from a Coast Highway convenience store, where they drew complaints. Initially, the plan worked. But now some of the dayworkers have drifted back to their old haunt, complaining that the canyon is too cold. The Circle K store, they say, is warm and has food and coffee. And, they say, it seems easier to find jobs in town than out in the canyon.

A badly flawed government study was used by NAACP leaders last week as the excuse for joining militant Latinos and others in a campaign to be nicer to companies that use illegal aliens as a source of cheap, exploitable labor. The convention of the black civil rights group voted to ask Congress to get rid of a provision in the 1986 immigration reform act that imposed stiff penalties on companies that knowingly hire foreigners who are here illegally.

Leaders of minority groups who have fought together for decades are finding themselves increasingly divided over immigration concerns that threaten to pit black Americans against other ethnic groups, particularly Latinos. Until now the nation's varied minority organizations have managed to smooth over differences to maintain a successful and united front, working most often through the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.