AZ-Business owner warns of Arpaio raids' effects

[FedUpinFarmersBranch]

Business owner warns of Arpaio raids' effects
12 workers at Chandler firm named in sweep
by Megan Boehnke - Sept. 28, 2008 12:00 AM

The president of the latest business raided over the hiring of illegal workers said the sweeping actions by the Sheriff's Office may create a chilling effect on Chandler and other East Valley companies.

Mike Garrison said he was alerted just before 7 a.m. Wednesday that Maricopa County deputies were serving a search warrant on his Chandler business, Legacy Custom Doors, and were detaining all of his workers.

When Garrison arrived, he said deputies were in the main office, searching employee files and computer records.
"Just to walk in and see sheriff's deputies going through filing cabinets makes you feel like a criminal, even though you've done nothing wrong," Garrison said. "Enough of these raids and it's almost as though as an employer you're living in fear of who you hire."

A spokeswoman for another Chandler business that was also raided Sept. 10 complained at the time that deputies held all its 300 or so workers for six hours and that the Sheriff's Office refused to answer any of the company attorney's questions.

That sweep, also done to investigate potential violations of the state's employer-sanctions law, resulted in the arrest of 65 employees at Gold Canyon Candle Company, including 23 of them over ID-theft accusations such as using stolen Social Security numbers to gain employment.

The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires employers to verify newly hired workers' Social Security numbers, running them through a federal database. Companies that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants face civil penalties, up to the loss of their business license.

In the case of Legacy Custom Doors, Garrison said the sheriff's warrant named 12 workers - eight of them current and four former - as suspects of identity theft. All of them were hired, he said, before Jan. 1, when his company started using the E-Verify system as required.

In all, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's department has since June raided four businesses for potential illegal-hiring violations, including a landscape company and a water-park company in Mesa.

None of the cases have resulted in charges against employers, although the investigations are continuing with the help from the County Attorney's Office.

Jerry Bustamante, president of the Chandler Chamber of Commerce, said he hasn't heard any complaints from the 1,400 city businesses the chamber represents.

Bustamante said he doesn't think the employer-sanction laws will have the kind of chilling effect Garrison is predicting and said that the chamber and other business organizations have worked to prepare owners for the change in the laws.

"I do not believe it's going to hinder our ability to attract businesses to the state," he said. "It is a factor, but as businesses, we may not be happy with the law, but at the end of the day, we're going to comply because it's the right thing to do."
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... o0928.html

[crazybird]

Enough of these raids and it's almost as though as an employer you're living in fear of who you hire."

You should be. If a school hires a child predator as a janitor, they get in trouble for not doing a background check, if a hospital hires a rapist as a janitor, same thing, they get in trouble, if a bartender serves a drunk 1 too many drinks and they drive and kill someone, the business is in trouble, and the bartender fined as well. If a cashier sells cigarettes to a minor because they were busy and forgot to ask for ID, they are charged with a crime. If a cashier accepts counterfit money in many cases they take the money out of their pay because they can't be sure they aren't part of a ring making it easy for the criminals to do their work.

EVERYONE is being screwed for the actions of another......so until there's a return for self-responsibility.......be afraid, be very afraid.