20 arrested at Memphis logistics company; state charges filed, I.C.E. agents present
20 arrested at Memphis logistics company; state charges filed, immigration agents present
Daniel Connolly, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee Published 6:51 p.m. CT Nov. 28, 2017 | Updated 10:06 p.m. CT Nov. 28, 2017
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/f91...1-PPHDH47I.jpg
(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Twenty people were arrested by the Tennessee Highway Patrol on Tuesday morning for allegedly using fraudulent documents to get jobs at a Memphis logistics company in southeast Shelby County.
And a Highway Patrol spokesman said federal immigration agents were also on the scene.
The arrests came more than a decade after University of Memphis researchers concluded local distribution companies were frequently hiring immigrant laborers through temp agencies, and that many of the immigrants were in the country illegally.
The researchers described the practice as part of a system that allowed the companies to exploit low-cost unauthorized immigrant labor.
Tuesday's arrests took place at a Memphis unit of Seattle-based Expeditors International. The arrests followed an investigation by the department's Criminal Investigative Division, THP spokesman Sgt. Chris Richardson said.
"Expeditors International used a temp service to hire these people," he said.
He said he didn't have the name of the temp agency. However, arrest affidavits named the agency as Provide Staffing Services LLC. A call to the Memphis-based company wasn't immediately returned late Tuesday evening.
A man who answered the phone at Expeditors International in Memphis on Tuesday evening referred questions to the district manager, who wasn't currently available.
The Commercial Appeal was able to locate charging documents Tuesday evening for only two out of the 20 workers arrested, both of them women.
Each woman is identified under the fictitious name Jane Doe as well as an alternate name: Hilda Hernandez and Raquel Delin, ages 37 and 32, respectively.
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/f3f...-Hernandez.jpg
The Tennessee Highway Patrol brought charges against this woman, identified in an arrest affidavit as Jane Doe, also known as Hilda Hernandez. (Photo: Shelby County Sheriff's Office)
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/f3f...quel-Delin.jpg
The Tennessee Highway Patrol brought charges against this woman, identified in an arrest affidavit as Jane Doe, also known as Raquel Delin. (Photo: Shelby County Sheriff's Office)
Each is charged with two counts of forgery and two counts of criminal simulation.
The affidavits list their last known address as 6005 Freeport Avenue, Suite 102. That's the address of a Memphis office of Expeditors International near the Mississippi state line.
The affidavits say that on Nov. 3, the Highway Patrol received information that several people had used fraudulent documents to obtain work with Provide Staffing Services. Each woman is accused of presenting a permanent resident card with a fraudulent number.
A permanent resident card, or green card, is a document that proves an immigrant has the right to live and work permanently in the U.S.
Richardson also said federal immigration agents were present during the arrests. "We requested their assistance not for deportation purposes, but for the tools they have and to identify these people."
He said the arrestees were booked into the Shelby County jail on state charges and not taken into immigration custody.
Authorities were trying to figure out their true identities, he said.
He also said he didn't know how many of the arrestees were immigrants and said he didn't know what led to the investigation. He said he wasn't able to provide a list of those arrested.
In 2007, The Commercial Appeal interviewed Mexican immigrants who said they had used fake identification to get jobs at local warehouse and distribution businesses.
Many local staffing agencies were accepting low-quality fake identification as they hired immigrants, many of whom were in the U.S. illegally, Argentinian anthropologist Marcela Mendoza and other researchers at the University of Memphis wrote in articles published between 2003 and 2006.
Larger companies' decision to use temp agency workers allowed them to get cheap labor and avoid responsibility for hiring unauthorized immigrants, the researchers concluded.
Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296,
daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/stor...his/903604001/
