The Westminster auto parts company that federal immigration agents raided last week could lose state aid worth $1.55 million if found guilty of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
As the Immigration and Naturalization Service continues to investigate Marada Industries, state and local officials are asking whether the company used $2 million in government aid in 1995 to hire illegal workers.
"The grants are designed to bring work to Marylanders," said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Prince George's County Democrat who sits on the panel that awarded the state aid. "We don't want to facilitate any company subverting the immigration laws of the United States."
Marada spokesman Jack Spangler declined to comment yesterday, saying, "It's really just too soon."
Thursday night, the INS arrested 29 suspected illegal workers at Marada on Airport Drive in Westminster. Twenty-six have requested deportation to Mexico instead of facing immigration hearings, INS officials said yesterday.
But if the INS investigation determines Marada is at fault, the state could try to recover its portion of the 1995 aid package by invoking the standard provision requiring that recipients obey all state and federal laws.
Department of Business and Economic Development officials, who oversee such aid packages, yesterday acknowledged that option but said they had never before had a reason to invoke it.
Department Secretary James T. Brady said he would proceed cautiously. "As soon as the facts are clear to us, we'll do what's appropriate," he said.
The largest portion of the aid package came from the state's Sunny Day Fund, a decade-old program in which state officials give loans or grants to support economic development. A panel of legislative leaders approves the aid packages, recommended the governor.
The fund has given more than $70 million to 50 projects and helped create 10,000 jobs, say department officials.
The Marada aid package included $1.4 million from the Sunny Day Fund and $150,000 in state job-training money. The money came as low-interest loans, but if the company increased its payroll -- then at 250 workers -- by 150 new hires, the loans were to become outright grants.
Carroll County also contributed $450,000 for road improvements and training programs for county residents.
"We have been satisfied with the way the training has gone," said John T. Lyburn, Carroll County economic development director. "We know they met the hiring criteria and exceeded it. As far as we know, Marada is a good employer and a good corporate citizen."
A company spokesman said Marada employs 450 workers -- 50 more than the minimum required in the aid deal. State records, based on reports by the company, show similar employment levels.
But the INS raid has raised new questions about the 1995 aid agreement.
Federal immigration officials were responding to tips that large numbers of illegal immigrants worked at the Westminster plant, say INS officials, who began receiving anonymous tips about Marada in August 1996.
The INS could seek civil or criminal charges against the company, which could lead to fines of up to $2,000 per worker.
As unemployment falls and labor costs rise, illegal aliens are becoming more common in workplaces in outlying areas such as Westminster.
"This is a ready labor supply," said Michael Fix, an immigration expert with the Urban Institute in Washington. "It's also a reasonably docile labor supply."
To convict of breaking immigration law, INS officials must show that a business has knowingly hired illegal aliens, many of whom carry forged papers.
Criminal convictions of companies are rare, but state leaders were angered by the Marada case and plan to investigate.
State Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman, a Baltimore Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, wants to know more about how aid packages are monitored by state bureaucrats.
"Nobody expected it was necessary to say, 'You're not going to hire illegals, are you?' " said Hoffman.
Del. Robert L. Flanagan, a Howard Republican and another member of the committee that awards the Sunny Day aid, said the Marada case shows the dangers of such a fund. It grew nearly seven times -- from $4 million to $27 million -- the first year of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's administration in 1995.
"If this [Marada case] is as flagrant a violation as the initial reports indicate, I think we ought to look into declaring them in breach of that contract and try to recover those funds," Flanagan said.
The company also faces heat in Carroll County.
"If Marada has abused the funding, we probably can and will do something," Commissioner Donald I. Dell said.
It is unclear if Carroll County has the power to rescind its portion of the 1995 aid package. But if Marada disregarded its agreement and hired illegals instead of area residents, Commissioner Richard T. Yates said there will be repercussions.
"Are they taking a job away from somebody qualified and hiring somebody illegal?" Yates asked. "It really bothers me if they are reneging on a promise to hire county residents. Are they trying to get around our agreement?"
But he added, "These may be jobs nobody here wanted."
Pub Date: 2/18/98
