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MORGAN HILL
12 alleged illegals nabbed in tech raid
Multiple agencies use sealed warrant to search company
- Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 21, 2006


Law enforcement agents who raided a Morgan Hill technology company to search its offices and warehouse last week detained 12 people suspected of being in the country illegally, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday.

Authorities are still not saying why Sun Valley Technical Repair is the focus of a criminal investigation involving several agencies, including the FBI, the Defense Department and a task force that probes high-technology crimes. The search warrant is sealed and company officials have declined to comment.

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the immigration and customs agency, said the government was seeking to deport nine men and three women who were "potentially employed by the targeted business." All but one are from Mexico; the other is from Nicaragua, she said. Eight have since been released from custody, some after posting bail.

Kice said the federal agents had encountered the workers as they executed search warrants. "We're looking into whether there were (willful) hiring violations by the business," she said, adding that workers sometimes dupe employers.

It is not clear how the immigration allegations figure into the larger investigation. The company specializes in repairing and reselling components from Sun Microsystems. According to Dun & Bradstreet, it was founded in 1987 and employs 125 people.

Kice said the investigation included the investigative arm of the Pentagon's inspector general.

Also involved are the state Department of Motor Vehicles, the U.S. Postal Service, Morgan Hill police and the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, a partnership of 16 local, state and federal agencies that investigate large-scale high-technology crimes.

Company owner and chief executive Joseph Faris did not return a telephone message left Tuesday at one of his offices. Reached last week at his home, he would not comment.

E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.