Thread: Tip led to crackdown on IFCO sites

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... e0422.html

Tip led to crackdown on IFCO sites

Dallas Morning News
Apr. 22, 2006 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The largest immigration workplace raid in U.S. history began with an insider's tip: Male Hispanic workers at an upstate New York plant were observed ripping up their W-2 tax forms, and a manager confided that they were undocumented immigrants with bogus Social Security numbers who did not intend to file tax returns.

That tipster's phone call in February 2005 to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Latham, N.Y., began a national investigation. It utilized a confidential informer wearing a wire and covert surveillance of the company's plants and houses where undocumented workers slept on mattresses packed tightly together.

The payoff came this week when authorities nabbed nearly 1,200 IFCO Systems workers in 26 states on immigration violations. And federal authorities, laying out details of their investigation in a 26-page affidavit, charged seven of the Houston-based company's current and former managers with harboring undocumented immigrants.

Some of those managers, accused of knowingly hiring such immigrants and ferrying them from Texas to New York, could face years in prison and huge fines if convicted. And IFCO, a division of a Dutch company, could see forfeiture of its assets.

"I never thought it would get this big," Peter Smith, the ICE special agent-in-charge in Buffalo, N.Y., said Friday.

With that initial tip, ICE investigators thought they might uncover 25 or 30 illegal workers at IFCO's plant in Guilderland, N.Y. But upon learning that IFCO employed 5,800 workers at dozens of U.S. locations, Smith said an ICE supervisor suggested it might make sense for investigators nationwide to check the company's other plants.

"I think this is the direction all our worksite enforcement investigations will be going in the future," Smith said. "Not only do you go after the aliens and the local business, but let's take a look at what they are doing nationally and who's directing them."

Using techniques more familiar to ICE's narcotics and national-security investigations than to worksite enforcement, the agency placed an informer in IFCO's Guilderland plant, taping in-person and phone conversations with managers.

IFCO, which distributes pallets to grocers and retailers nationwide, said the activities detailed by the government "are counter to everything we stand for.

"We are very disturbed by these allegations and have immediately begun a thorough investigation of the facts," the company said in a statement.

http://finanzen.net/news/news_detail.asp?NewsNr=391150

Statement by IFCO

21.04.2006 16:09:00

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IFCO SYSTEMS today released the following statementregarding information presented yesterday at a U.S. Immigration andCustoms Enforcement press conference in Washington:

As it is IFCO's policy to comply with all federal and stateemployment provisions, we take the allegations made by U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) very seriously and arecommitted to resolving this matter as soon as possible. We are verydisturbed by these allegations and have immediately begun a thoroughinvestigation of the facts.

The activities and attitudes outlined in the allegations arecounter to everything we stand for at IFCO. We have the highestrespect for our nation's employment and citizenship laws and arecommitted to complying with them.

IFCO is the industry leader with a business model built on theefficiencies of our logistics systems and physical network and we aredeeply committed to our employees. We are proud to offer a level ofcompensation and benefits to our employees that many of our peers donot. These include competitive wages, workers' compensation insurance,affordable health insurance, 401k, and various other benefits.

We are cooperating fully with ICE and other authorities includingvoluntarily allowing ICE to visit many of our facilities this pastWednesday. We are now working to understand the facts and willimplement any additional changes necessary to further improve ourcurrent procedures. So that we will be able to move forward withconfidence, we have begun an internal investigation that will beheaded by outside counsel. Pending the outcome of our investigation,the local IFCO managers arrested Wednesday have been placed ontemporary leave from the company. In cooperation with ICE, we will bereviewing the status of our temporarily detained hourly workers acrossthe country on a case by case basis.

All of our facilities are in operation and we are workingdiligently to meet all of our customers' needs.

All of our facilities are in operation and we are working diligently to meet all of our customers' needs.
_________________

I wonder if they put all the released ones back to work??? Also, I heard on the news in Nashville that one of the ones arrested here owns a home and now has a immigration attorney trying to keep him from being deported. People here are very nervous said one of their "leaders." They arrested 24 people at the plant in Nashville. They always immediatly start sobbing that "hard working" "established family, etc." stuff. It's just sickening. They knew what could happen and seem surprised that it happened.

The government knew about IFCO for awhile as the Social Security Admin. sent them 13 notices regarding 50% of their workforce with fraudulent ss#'s and they did nothing. I am sure the government knows of many more as well through this method, but does nothing.

can we assemble a list of companies hiring illegals with actual proof or data alongside it. then send that list in to ICE?

we would need proof and interbal whistleblowers per company e.g. Home Depot or Target etc. If we can snowball the IFCO thing, we may start getting our LAWS enforced and getting some of the illegals thinking twice about coming here and may make them think of going back...

any thoughts? support?

Like I said the Social Security Admin already has a list of companies with illegal aliens using fraudulent documents. With regards to the companies hiring illegals under the table, they will have to go in there and ask for ID on all employees, which they won't do.