Something Fishy (Fairfield County Weekly)

Something Fishy
An ICE raid on a Connecticut shell-fishing company raises questions about federal immigration policy under Obama

By Gregory B. Hladky
Thursday, August 27, 2009

Working aboard a Connecticut shell-fishing boat is no easy ride. We're talking hard physical labor, year round in all kinds of Long Island Sound weather, for not much more than minimum wage.

And the job seems to be getting tougher all the time thanks to federal immigration and customs authorities on the hunt for illegal aliens and U.S. Coast Guard efforts to enforce an antiquated and confusing maritime law about limits on immigrant crew.

The pattern of arrests and stricter inspections raises new questions about President Barack Obama's stance on immigration. Reformers claim federal enforcement tactics have begun to shift since Obama took office, sometimes in ways that don't always match his argument that immigration reform should be a top national priority.

The apparent federal crackdown in Connecticut appears to have hit one Norwalk shell-fishing company particularly hard.

Since February, two employees of Norm Bloom & Son have been arrested for illegally entering the U.S. and deported, according a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Norm Bloom insists only one of his workers has been deported this year, but acknowledges he was forced to dock a boat for several days because Coast Guard inspectors found it was captained by a non-U.S. citizen in violation of federal law.

Bloom claims his memory is fuzzy when it comes to many of these touchy immigration issues. Federal authorities are also somewhat reticent and/or bewildered about who was arrested when and by whom. ICE, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and the Coast Guard have all been involved and detailed information is hard to come by.

"We don't discuss investigative specifics," explained Paula Grenier, spokeswoman for the Boston ICE office. A Coast Guard spokesman said he can't talk about arrests made by other agencies, even if they occurred during a Coast Guard inspection. Federal officials say there's no effort targeting Connecticut shell-fishing operations, despite what the shell fishermen claim.

The pain and confusion surrounding these law enforcement actions haven't been limited to any single Connecticut shell-fishing operator and dark rumors about scores of arrests or dismissals at companies have spread like a chum trail in rough seas.

Some Connecticut shell-fishing companies have had to let go immigrant workers whose papers failed the federal sniff test. Officials at several firms say the Coast Guard sent out letters warning of the consequences of violating federal regulations covering the number of non-U.S. citizens in their crews.

Federal law requires that at least 75 percent of crews on U.S.-registered commercial-fishing vessels be American citizens — which can be a problem, especially if you have a two- or three-person boat.

*

The idea that the shell-fishing industry has lots of legal (and illegal) immigrant workers shouldn't be a shock.

Whether it's washing dishes, mowing lawns or picking tobacco, immigrants are often among the only people willing to take hard-labor, low-wage jobs.

"I always assumed there were a lot of [shell-fishing] outfits hiring illegal people," said Larry Williams, owner of a Milford-based company called Jessie D. Inc. Williams, who operates two boats, said he's been very wary of hiring undocumented immigrants because of the potential problems involved, but that it's difficult finding U.S. citizens to take these jobs.

Norm Bloom, owner of Bloom & Son in Norwalk, agrees. "It's hard to get people to do this kind of work. ... You get some Americans, you take 'em out on the boat for a week and they leave."

State officials say there are 114 licensed shell-fishing boats registered in Connecticut. According to a 2004 state report, this state's annual harvest has ranged from 36,000 to as high as 196,000 bushels of oysters and clams.

State Rep. Terry Backer of Stratford said the federal law about immigrant crew percentages is "being misapplied to Long Island Sound." He argues Connecticut farmers would never harvest a crop if they had the same labor requirement.

Backer is chairman of a legislative subcommittee with authority over state spending for the environment and aquaculture. He is also executive director of Soundkeeper Inc., a non-profit group set up to help preserve the Sound, and a long-time friend of Bloom's. Backer's Soundkeeper's office has rent-free space in Bloom's Norwalk headquarters.

"If you wanted to pay $15 an hour, you could fill your deck with U.S. citizens. But you wouldn't be in business long," Backer said, adding the recession could help "bring people back to this work."

Backer shrugs off the issue of illegal aliens working in Connecticut's shell-fishing industry as a non-problem. His friend Norm Bloom disputes the details of the ICE crackdown.

Bloom said he had "no idea" how long he had employed the 30-year-old Honduran who was arrested by ICE on Feb. 6 and has no knowledge of an alleged U.S. Customs and Border Patrol arrest of a 32-year-old Ecuadorian employee of Bloom's this spring. "They got something screwed up," Bloom insisted.

"I wasn't charged with anything," Bloom said about the enforcement actions. "It wasn't a legal thing to me. ... You're asking me things I don't really care or think about."

Bloom estimated he has "about six boats" operating in this state and "four or five down there" in New Jersey. (David Carey, head of this state's Bureau of Aquaculture, said Norm Bloom currently has 14 shell-fishing vessels licensed in Connecticut.)

One of Bloom's competitors in Norwalk, Leslie B. Miklovich, said her company hired an immigration lawyer to help avoid difficulties. Even so, Miklovich said she's had to let go eight foreign workers this year because ICE found problems with their documentation.

Miklovich is vice president of Hillard Bloom Shellfish Inc., which emerged (as did Norm Bloom & Son) from a bitter family and corporate split years ago. Miklovich said her company operates 12 boats and has 42-45 workers.

The federal enforcement effort concerning immigrant crews became "more aggressive" late in 2008, Miklovich said. "It's an old law that is probably outdated and probably needs to be revised."

Miklovich said they tell their workers, "If you're going to work here, you need to have the proper papers." At the same time, she believes the U.S. immigration system needs serious reform. "They [illegal immigrants without proper ID] should be able somehow to obtain it legally if they want to work and pay taxes like the rest of us."

Dustin W. Gold disagrees. "I think this is a perfect time to throw these people out and get Americans back to work," said Gold, an activist from North Branford who strongly opposes legalization of undocumented workers and New Haven's decision to issue city IDs to immigrants.

Gold claims solving the shell-fishing industry's labor problems is simple: "If you've got to pay Americans $15 an hour and the price of seafood goes up, that's the way it's got to be."

President Obama promised to make immigration reform a top priority, but recently backed away from plans to push it this year, citing the preoccupation of Congress over health care.

Yale Law professor Michael Wishnie argues that Obama doesn't need to wait for Congress to change the direction of immigration policy. He said enforcement programs such as the one apparently targeting Connecticut shell-fishing boats have "nothing to do with Congress" and are "entirely within the purview of the Obama administration."

Wishnie conducts a Worker and Immigrant Rights Clinic at Yale. His students represent many legal immigrants as well as people accused of being here illegally.

He said the Obama administration has in some ways changed federal enforcement practices but in other areas has continued the patterns of George W. Bush's regime.

A federal raid in Bellingham, Wash., reveals some of the uncertainty surrounding national enforcement policies under Obama. In February, ICE arrested 28 undocumented workers at an engine factory. After political protests erupted, almost all of those workers were granted temporary work permits and an investigation was begun into the decision to stage the raid. Two officers of the engine company pleaded guilty earlier this month to knowingly hiring illegal workers and federal officials said the case demonstrates Obama's commitment to targeting employers rather than the immigrants they hire.

But Wishnie said the shift in tactics doesn't necessarily translate into less trouble for undocumented aliens. "Overall numbers show the Obama administration is making as many or more" arrests as ICE did under Bush, he said.

"Our immigration laws were written 50 years ago for a post-World War II world," he said. "They are very much out of step with reality. ... It has resulted in untold misery for millions of people and families. There are 10-13 million people here, working, taking their children to school, but they are living in the shadows."

Including some of the folks hauling those pricey oysters and clams up from Long Island Sound.