Illegal Immigrants Fight Deportation

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - For nine Holiday Inn Express housekeepers from Mexico, U.S. law cuts both ways.

They helped unionize their fellow housekeepers at the hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Soon afterward, the hotel fired them and reported them to the Immigration and Naturalization Service as illegal aliens.

Last week, the nine workers won a $72,000 settlement from the hotel in the first case in which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission intervened on behalf of illegal immigrants.

But they still are almost certain to be deported to Mexico.

Though all nine have admitted entering the United States illegally, the housekeepers say they would gladly trade their $8,000 checks for the right to stay.

``I have nothing in Mexico,'' said Norma Lerma del Torro, 28, a mother of three. She said she might try to start a small business with her settlement money and eke out a living if she is sent back.

Another one of the fired housekeepers, Estela Albino, 28, said she didn't think her check would go far back home. Two of her sisters and three of her cousins are also in the group. ``Things are so expensive there I don't think the money would last long,'' she said.

The housekeepers' attorney, Jorge Saavedra F., has asked Attorney General Janet Reno and the INS to grant them amnesty. He said they deserve to stay because they helped investigators from the National Labor Relations Board and EEOC build a case against the hotel.

``Now that the federal government is done using these folks as their key witnesses, then they're calling in a third federal agency in the form of the INS to show them the door,'' Saavedra F. said.

Barring amnesty or a favorable ruling from an immigration judge, the immigrants will probably be deported in four to five months, said Curtis Aljets, director of the regional INS office.

``They're not entitled to pursue employment,'' he said.

The housekeepers have won supporters in high places, including Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., who said he spoke with INS Commissioner Doris Meissner on Monday and plans to discuss the case with Reno.

Wellstone said he supports amnesty for the immigrants as ``a plea for justice.''

``I think it was very courageous of these workers. They cooperated with the EEOC. They cooperated with the Justice Department. They cooperated with the NLRB,'' Wellstone said. ``If ever there could be an exception made, I think it would be for these workers.''

Like many other illegal immigrants, Ms. Albino and Ms. Lerma didn't have big ambitions when they came to the United States about two years ago. Through an interpreter, both women said they just wanted to find jobs that would support them and let them send money home to their families.

At the Holiday Inn Express, they joined the army of immigrant workers - legal and illegal - that keeps hotels going across the United States.

There they claimed they were subjected to low wages, discriminatory working conditions and exploitation because of their race, so they began organizing. Several of the nine took leadership roles, and won a unionization vote in August.

In October, managers of the hotel fired them and reported them to the INS, which had them arrested.

Hotel general manager Kevin Koenig denied reporting the workers to the INS in retaliation for their union activity. He said that he had a duty to report them after discovering they were in the country illegally, and that he feared possible fines.

After the arrests, Local 17 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union filed a complaint with the NLRB and the EEOC.

That led to the first major test of new EEOC policies meant to protect all employees against discrimination regardless of their immigration status. The EEOC's lawsuit against the hotel was the first under the new guidelines, which were issued in October.

While denying any wrongdoing, the hotel agreed Jan. 6 to settle the case and train its managers on the relevant discrimination and labor laws. It agreed on a contract with the union last month.

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