Accusations surface over illegal immigrants working on local base (Enid News and Eagle)

Accusations surface over illegal immigrants working on local base
By Robert Barron, Staff Writer
Enid News and Eagle
February 14, 2010

ENID — Dealing with illegal immigrants at Vance Air Force Base is a very complex problem, but security staff constantly are training to a better job, said Col. Chris Nowland, 71st Flying Training Wing commander.

“It’s a complex situation because we’re dealing with living, breathing, thinking people who are seeking employment. If they are here illegally, they are using identification cards and when we find one, they change cards,” he said.

Accusations of lax security at Vance regarding illegal immigrants recently were raised by a recently terminated civilian police officer Corey Spradlin. Spradlin told a state newspaper there is an attitude of “this is Vance – nothing ever happens here,” presence at the Air Force base. He told the newspaper he was terminated within days of denying access to the mother of the woman who cleans Nowland’s house. The housekeeper and her mother told police they were on their way to a Bible study with Nowland’s wife.

Security forces at Vance are trained constantly to better identify false ID cards. The future of the identification is a bar code im-planted in the cards that goes into a national database. Nowland said that is the way of the future.

Nowland said he cannot speak about day-to-day breaches; however, he said he only knows of three and the worse of those three is Victor Martinez-Ochoa. Martinez-Ochoa worked for a subcontractor of the U.S. Corps of Engineers who validated his paperwork, Nowland said. He was a sub-contractor to the Corps of Engineers and got on the base. Spradlin was trained to notice false identification and discovered Martinez-Ochoa had a false Texas driver’s license.

“He had a base pass but also had to show an ID card. Spradlin checked his ID card and found it was illegal. That’s how he (Martinez-Ochoa) was detected. In every one of these cases, when we detect them, everything is done right,” Nowland said.

The Air Force has no jurisdiction over these individuals, but they are held and Enid police are notified, Nowland said. The police come and remove the illegal immigrants from the base and start them through the legal process.

“We try to find them at the gate and detect them. As far as the accusation, are there a flurry of illegals working on the base? My gut tells me no,” Nowland said.

Subcontractors are required to verify employees, and they are presented with gate passes. All of the contractors know it is their responsibility to get people to work who are legal U.S. residents, but Nowland said that may be more difficult for smaller subcontractors.

“Our prime contractors realize it is in their best interest to see that all who work for them are legal. The U.S. government can take action,” Nowland said.

The base commander said Spradlin’s termination had nothing to do with his catching the mother of the woman who cleans Nowland’s house nor with his catching illegal aliens. Nowland said he had nothing to do with it. Spradlin’s termination came because of his behavior and inability to fit in and meet the standards of the Air Force and security forces. Nowland and Security Forces Comman-der Maj. Michelle Stringer looked at the due process procedures to make sure they were followed.

“You can’t just terminate a federal employee willy-nilly. He had due process, but he was terminated because of his behavior and not as retribution,” Nowland said. “We take these accusations very seriously and we want to make sure the base is safe.”

Spradlin could not be reached for comment Sunday.