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08-03-2006, 01:48 PM #1
Raid nets 25 illegal workers at fish-processing plant
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/80 ... 9783c.html
Raid nets 25 illegal workers
CANNERY: Arrested men came from Mexico and had tourist visas.
By MEGAN HOLLAND
Anchorage Daily News
Published: August 3, 2006
Last Modified: August 3, 2006 at 03:39 AM
Authorities raided a Kenai fish-processing plant last week and arrested 25 young Mexicans on tourist visas who were posing as legal workers and employed on the cannery's "slime line," federal officials said Wednesday.
The Mexican nationals, all between 18 and 20, were flown to Seattle where they are undergoing deportation, officials said.
Authorities were first alerted to the workers when a state trooper visited Snug Harbor Seafoods on July 18 looking for a automobile that had been in a single-vehicle accident, troopers spokesman Greg Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said that trooper Larry Erickson found the driver and passengers of the car and a dozen others camped out on plant grounds, which is where many cannery workers live for extended periods of time during the summer seasonal work. He asked to see their visa papers. The Mexicans showed the trooper their tourist visas and said they were just visiting.
Troopers notified federal authorities of their suspicions that the workers were illegally in the country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the plant July 28. Wilkinson said 23 Mexican nationals were arrested while two more fled into nearby woods. Immigration officials say they were eventually caught.
All were transported to Anchorage, where they were put on a flight to Seattle.
Immigration officials did not know how long the workers had been in the United States.
Snug Harbor Seafoods owner Paul Dale said the young Mexicans showed up in person to apply for the jobs and told him they were college students in Mexico. They presented him with what he thought were legitimate residency papers that allowed them to work.
They began work at the cannery, which employs about 150 workers, in June, Dale said. They processed salmon for $7.25 an hour on the slime line, where the fish are first brought in, gutted and filleted.
"They were good kids," Dale said of the workers. "We regret the incident."
The Alaska seafood processing industry provides jobs for more than 19,000 people each year, not including jobs on fishing vessels, according to the state.
"Getting enough process workers is a challenge," said Stephanie Madsen, vice president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association.
Workers, she said, come from around the world, and seafood processors work closely with federal immigration officials.
Lori Haley, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, western region, said: "There is illegal hiring going on in Alaska, as it is everywhere. Where there is work there's people who want jobs.
"It's really a problem with fake documents. You know, employers aren't detectives," Haley said. "It's very easy to make false documents these days. You can just do it with a computer and a printer in your kitchen."
Haley said she did not know how the Mexicans came to Alaska.
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Daily News reporter Megan Holland can be reached at mrholland@adn.com.Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at http://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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08-03-2006, 01:59 PM #2"Getting enough process workers is a challenge," said Stephanie Madsen, vice president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association.
Haley said she did not know how the Mexicans came to Alaska.Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
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08-03-2006, 02:08 PM #3Haley said she did not know how the Mexicans came to Alaska.
So I wonder when Greenland will be declared part of LA AZTLAN plan?"Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results is the definition of insanity. " Albert Einstein.
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08-03-2006, 02:21 PM #4
It would be very expensive to travel from Mexico to Alaska. They must have had help getting there, and I suspect it was the employer who helped them.
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08-03-2006, 07:23 PM #5
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"Getting enough process workers is a challenge" ...I guess so, when you're only willing to pay your workers $7.25 an hour to spend all day gutting fish.. I'm not gonna defend the kids who come here in violation of our laws, but the real villain here, is the factory owner who is comfortable exploiting these retards and skirting our laws to expand his profit margin.
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