Follow up article: Sulphur saddlery loses staff

[kniggit]

By Penny Cockerell
The Oklahoman

SULPHUR - A Sulphur company that makes and sells 8,000 saddles annually worldwide lost about two-thirds of its employees Wednesday during a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.


Dozens of federal agents arrived at Billy Cook’s Harness and Saddle with search warrants to seize company documents, agency spokesman Carl Rusnok said. While there, Rusnok said, they found 51 employees who are considered illegal aliens. All said they are from Mexico.

Billy Cook described Wednesday’s ordeal as a nightmare. He said 45 agents closed his company and refused to let anyone in or out while they confiscated his records and computers - and then his employees.

“Things ain’t good,” said Cook. “Some of them have been here five, six years. Some have been here 10 years,” Cook said. “All of these people that worked for me were good hard workers and paid their bills. Some American people don’t do that.”

Cook says he complied with the law by asking the workers for Social Security numbers or “green cards” that allow them to work here legally. He said he doesn’t speak Spanish and had no idea they were undocumented.

“They’re trying to say that I knew they were illegals.” Cook said. “They don’t know what I know.”

Rusnok said his agency will verify their country of origin and, as long as they have no criminal history, the workers will be taken to the U.S.-Mexico border and “literally escorted halfway across the bridge.”

The raid is one of many nationwide as border issues and immigration reform remain a hot topic in communities and among politicians.

While immigration officials deemed the operation a success, Cook says the move is a crippling loss of skilled employees who won’t be easy to replace.

Immigration officials said they worked with the Social Security Administration to zero in on Cook’s company.

“All of them had been identified as illegally living in the United States,” said Rusnok, who predicted the agency would forgo the formal deportation process and simply escort the undocumented workers out of the country.

Whether Cook will face charges for hiring the workers remains to be seen.

Cook, 76, began making specialty saddles in Texas in 1945 and moved his business to Sulphur in 1992. His staff of 75 made him one of Murray County’s largest employers.

Cook’s saddles can cost up to $7,000 each, depending on the tooling and silver involved. His sales top $6 million annually.

Most, if not all, of his workers started working at minimum wage while Cook trained them to become skilled saddle makers. In time, Cook said, they got raises, with some now earning $12 an hour.

“I didn’t hire these people just to hire cheap labor. I hired them because we had to train them. We train everyone here.”

Sulphur Mayor Mike Crews said he was surprised to hear of Wednesday’s raid. He called Cook’s saddle company a “class operation” and said his employees, some of whom buy insurance from Crews, have been good residents who pay taxes and cause no trouble.

“Illegal or legal, the loss of the workforce obviously will hurt Billy,” Crews said. “They spend money in town, and those paychecks will roll over several times and the loss of that money will hurt the community.”

Crews wondered about children of the undocumented workers, some of whom are U.S. citizens.

Cook said some of his seized workers had children in day cares when they were taken. Several of his employees spent Wednesday evening rounding them up and finding people to care for them.

Rusnok said one woman was not detained when she said she had a child at home. She was released on her own recognizance and given notice to appear before a deportation judge. Two juveniles who were working at the saddle company were released to a local relative. A fourth woman, at her request, was taken by agency officials, along with her child, Rusnok said.

Cook said he has no plans to close or leave Sulphur. Right now, he just needs about 50 new employees.

“I like it here, and it’s been real successful, and if I can get some help, we’re gonna continue,” Cook said. “It’s too good a business to close.”

The immigration agency has arrested 445 people since October, the beginning of this fiscal year, on criminal charges in worksite investigations and has apprehended another 2,700 of illegal workers on immigration violations, according to a news release.

During all of fiscal 2005, the agency arrested 176 people on criminal charges and another 1,116 illegal alien workers in these cases.

[MW]

Cook says he complied with the law by asking the workers for Social Security numbers or “green cards” that allow them to work here legally. He said he doesn’t speak Spanish and had no idea they were undocumented.

Yeah, right! The federal government should confiscate his business and sell off his assets to assist in the fight against illegal immigration. How in the world can this guy say, with a straight face, he didn't know any of his employers were illegal immigrants? Are you telling me all 50 of them spoke fluent English? I'm sure the Social Security Administration sent him letters informing him that there were problems with some of his employees social security numbers! If I read the article correctly, that is how ICE homed in on him and his operation.

My word: Confiscate his business, that was built on the back of illegal immigrant labor (cheap labor), and sell off all his assets to help fund the war on illegal immigration! Last, but not least, send the man to jail for about 36 months.

[sippy]

Cook said he has no plans to close or leave Sulphur. Right now, he just needs about 50 new employees.

Well Mr. Cook I'm sure you could find 50 good American employees. You will just have to pay them better than you did the illegals.

“Things ain’t good,” said Cook. “Some of them have been here five, six years. Some have been here 10 years,” Cook said. “All of these people that worked for me were good hard workers and paid their bills. Some American people don’t do that.”

Some American people don't do that because they probably LOST THEIR JOBS TO ILLEGAL WORKERS because of greedy business owners like you!

So now you AIN'T hiring more illegal workers.

[dlm1968]

51 employees and he had no idea they were illegal....yeah right.

ICE used SS in their investigation to zero in on his business. I am sure he has received many "no match" letters from SS about his employees.

I agree, he needs to be prosecuted to the full extent and his business holdings seized to fund ICE in the search for illegals. That would be true justice.

[WavTek]

“Illegal or legal, the loss of the workforce obviously will hurt Billy,” Crews said. “They spend money in town, and those paychecks will roll over several times and the loss of that money will hurt the community.”

Replace them with American workers and not only will they continue to spend money in your town, they'll spend more, since they won't be sending any of it back to mexico. These were obviously jobs that Americans will do.