Thread: AZ PHX:Employer Sanctions Law arrests at Golfland, Waterworl

http://mesa.golfland.com/careers.aspx

9 suspected illegal immigrants face fraud charges after raid
June 10th, 2008 @ 5:44pm
by Hanna Scott/KTAR; Associated Press

Sheriff's deputies said they've arrested nine suspected illegal immigrants on fraud charges for allegedly using forged documents or stolen identities to get jobs at Waterworld and Big Surf in metropolitan Phoenix.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose office is investigating the case, said the fraud bust might lead to a case under the state's employer sanctions law if deputies can prove the amusement parks operators knew they were hiring illegal immigrants.

"This is not an easy law to prove, but you have to start somewhere and I feel one way to start - if you catch employees that are there illegally and using false documents, then the next step is, ‘hey, did the owner know about this?,'" said Arpaio.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said authorities didn't yet have a sanctions case resulting from the raid Tuesday morning at Golfland Entertainment locations in Mesa and north Phoenix.

Golfland Entertainment released a written statement saying the company was cooperating with investigators and following the requirements of the employer sanctions law, including checking the employment eligibility of its workers through a federal database.

"We will work cooperatively with their efforts as we are convinced that we have been abiding by all the provisions detailed in the (law)," the company said.

The information that led to the fraud arrests came from a former Golfland Entertainment employee who told investigators that the owners of the parks were knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Arpaio said his office will examine whether the owners violated the employer sanctions law or conspired with the nine arrested employees in the fraud cases.

Employment records were seized during the raid. Arpaio said there is suspicious paperwork for half of all Golfland Entertainment employees.

Elias Bermudez, leader of the advocacy group Immigrants without Borders, said the sheriff was overstepping his authority by targeting employees of the business.

"It truly angers the community that now we have to live in fear of this guy," Bermudez said.

Arpaio said the arrests at the amusement parks were for serious crimes. "We go after anybody," Arpaio said. "I don't care where they are."




http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=862822

It truly angers the community that now we have to live in fear of this guy,"

I don't live in fear...The LEGAL community does not live in fear......I am legal and do NOT fear the police....Joe..please move to Nevada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank God for Sheriff Joe!!!

Files seized in undocumented worker case
Published: June 11, 2008

MESA, Ariz., June 11 (UPI) -- Hundreds of employee records have been seized from the Arizona offices of an amusement park operator suspected of hiring undocumented workers, police say.

Nine employees of Mesa-based Golfland Entertainment Centers, which operates Waterworld, Golfland and Big Surf, were arrested Tuesday in a Maricopa County Sheriff's Department ID-theft investigation that may lead to the first use of a new state law to prosecute employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants, the Arizona Republic reported Wednesday.

Dave Johnson, director of marketing for Golfland, said that the company which has over 1,100 workers in Arizona, has nothing to hide.

"We haven't tried to impede their investigation in any way, and we are confident we are in full compliance with the law," he said.

www.upi.com

Fun-park raids test state hiring law
Company records seized in illegal-worker inquiry
1453 commentsJun. 10, 2008 02:25 PM
The Arizona Republic
Maricopa County sheriff's deputies seized hundreds of employee records from the parent company of three Valley summer-fun spots on Tuesday as part of a sweeping ID-theft investigation that may lead to the first use of a new state law to prosecute employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants.

Nine workers associated with Golfland Entertainment Centers, which operates Waterworld, Golfland and Big Surf, were arrested in an investigation that stems from a tip the Sheriff's Office received in February.

But any potential penalty for Golfland Entertainment Centers through a civil violation of the state's employer-sanctions law is likely a ways off, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said.
"This may or may not turn into an employer-sanctions violation," he said. "These cases take time."

Thomas said it marked the first time that he and Sheriff Joe Arpaio have worked in concert to investigate potential violations of the Legal Arizona Workers Act, which took effect in January. Deputies served search warrants on Waterworld and Golfland for employee records.

A Golfland Entertainment Centers official said the company is cooperating with the Sheriff's Office.

For company employees, Tuesday made for an unusual day.

The arrests and seizures were the result of an investigation that started after a former Waterworld employee provided detectives with specific, credible information about workers at the water park using fraudulent IDs, sheriff's officials said.

Armed with arrest warrants, undercover detectives targeted half-a-dozen workers suspected of ID theft early Tuesday as the employees were on their way to work at Waterworld.

Detectives caught four of them before 9 a.m. and then reconvened in a West Valley meeting room to make plans to serve warrants for Waterworld employee files at the water park and the company's local headquarters at Golfland in Mesa.

By 11 a.m., detectives were collecting records for more than 400 employees at Waterworld and detaining a couple of other illegal-immigration suspects who happened to cross paths with the Sheriff's Office's federally trained deputies. Golfland Entertainment Centers employs more than 1,100 people in Arizona.

Deputies took into custody the fifth suspect as he attempted to flee Waterworld on Tuesday with two co-workers. Sheriff's deputies also detained the co-workers when they couldn't give sufficient evidence they were in the country legally.

The sixth suspect deputies targeted arrived at the Waterworld office and was arrested without incident.

Sheriff's officials reported having evidence that more than 100 employees at Waterworld could have potential discrepancies with Social Security numbers.

Dave Johnson, director of marketing for Golfland, said after the arrests that the company has nothing to hide.

"We haven't tried to impede their investigation in any way, and we are confident we are in full compliance with the law," he said.

Johnson said all employees hired this year have been vetted through E-Verify, a Web-based program that electronically checks the employment eligibility of new hires. The program went into effect this year under the hiring law.

The new law says employers who knowingly hire illegal workers can face the penalty of having a business license suspended or revoked. The E-Verify system, however, can serve as a defense for employers.

Waterworld is one of three water parks owned by Golfland Entertainment Centers, which also operates the Big Surf water park in Tempe and Sunsplash water park and miniature-golf course in Mesa. Johnson said all parks would remain open as scheduled.

The company's local headquarters is in Mesa at Sunsplash. Fred Kenney of Granite Bay, Calif., is listed as the company's president and chief executive. Golfland Entertainment Centers also operates six parks in California.

Tuesday's action from the Sheriff's Office drew a mixed response from patrons at the family-fun parks in the Valley.

"You just usually don't think of that population working here," said Debbie Walton of Gilbert. "It's teenagers working summer jobs."

Other residents echoed Arpaio's sentiment that his office should enforce all laws to the fullest extent.

"I think it's necessary," said Susan Collins of Chandler. "We have to have laws. I'd like to see them enforced unless they've been changed."

Following an afternoon news conference at the Sheriff's Office, several community activists gathered the media to voice concerns about Arpaio's enforcement of illegal-immigration laws.

Phoenix attorney Antonio Bustamante called the arrests "simply another pretext."

"The sheriff has a hard time complying with the black lettering of the law," he said.

Bustamante said deputies were going against defenseless people without a voice or political power.

Elias Bermudez of Immigrants Without Borders called the raid "selective enforcement."

"He's not going after employers, he's going after employees," Bermudez said.

But that has been Arpaio's approach to enforcing the state's employer-sanctions law since the statute went into effect Jan. 1.

Arpaio, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent, often likens immigration enforcement to drug suppression, in which authorities start with small-time offenders and attempt to work their way up to dealers and smugglers.

In this instance, deputies arrest people suspected of identity theft with an eye on gathering enough information to potentially build a case against an employer over violation of a state civil statute.

"We're not just looking at the employees, we're looking at the employers, we're looking at the businesses," Thomas said. He wouldn't say whether the case might serve as a bellwether of sanctions cases to come.



Reporters JJ Hensley, Craig Harris, Jim Walsh and Michael Kiefer contributed to this article.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... nd-CP.html

June 12, 2008
Immigration Raid in Arizona Could Test New State Law
By PAUL GIBLIN

MESA, Ariz. — A raid on two busy water parks and the arrest of nine workers suspected of being illegal immigrants might become the first case to test Arizona’s new employer sanctions law.

The law, which went into effect in January, carries penalties that suspend or revoke business licenses of employers who “knowinglyâ€

June 11, 2008 - 6:09PM
Tempe water park is third in sheriff’s raids
Nick R. Martin, Tribune
The sheriff's office revealed Wednesday that a third popular family water park was targeted in this week's raids of a Mesa company whose employees were suspected of fraud and immigration violations.

10 suspected illegals arrested at water parks

Records were seized from the Big Surf water park in Tempe at the same time similar amusement parks in Mesa and Phoenix were raided by investigators on Tuesday, said Maricopa County sheriff's spokesman Capt. Paul Chagolla.

All told in the raids, nine people were arrested on suspicion of fraud and being in the country illegally, and another man was arrested on a lone immigration violation.

About 400 employment records were also seized or searched to find out if Mesa-based Golfland Entertainment Centers, which owns all three parks, has been knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

As many as 104 employees could be implicated in the fraud case, officials said.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced the arrests and search warrants at a Tuesday news conference, but neither mentioned the third location.

"What we didn't talk about yesterday were some items that we wanted to be very discreet about," said Chagolla, who confirmed that the third park was given a subpoena for records.

No arrests were made at the Tempe park, and a search warrant was not necessary there, Chagolla said. He declined to elaborate.

The case is significant because it marks the first time investigators have publicly scrutinized a business' hiring practices since January, when a new law made it possible for companies to be suspended or closed if they are caught hiring illegal immigrants.

While officials said the company is not suspected of breaking the so-called Legal Arizona Workers Act, they also said the investigation is ongoing and growing.

Golfland representatives denied knowing they hired illegal immigrants and said they have worked to comply with the new employment law since it went into effect at the start of the year.

The company also said its locations will continue to operate while the investigation continues.

The sheriff's office on Wednesday also released the names of the nine arrested on suspicion of fraud and immigration offenses, though it did not release the name of the 10th.

Arrested were:

Erika Castro Sanchez, 37
Monica Ibanez, 39
Ernesto Flores-Ayala, 42
Eduardo Franco, 52
Victor Galaviz, 49
Ruben Sotelo, 47
Maria De Pilar Baez, 36
Eloisa Bojorquez-Ayala, 35
Erika Fabiola Ibarra, 31
Each was suspected of forgery and identification theft, according to the sheriff's office.

Arrested were:

Erika Castro Sanchez, 37
Monica Ibanez, 39
Ernesto Flores-Ayala, 42
Eduardo Franco, 52
Victor Galaviz, 49
Ruben Sotelo, 47
Maria De Pilar Baez, 36
Eloisa Bojorquez-Ayala, 35
Erika Fabiola Ibarra, 31
Each was suspected of forgery and identification theft, according to the sheriff's office.

These people are a little old to be doing a teenagers summer job, aren't they?

Phoenix attorney Antonio Bustamante called the arrests "simply another pretext."

"The sheriff has a hard time complying with the black lettering of the law," he said.

Bustamante said deputies were going against defenseless people without a voice or political power.

Elias Bermudez of Immigrants Without Borders called the raid "selective enforcement."

"He's not going after employers, he's going after employees," Bermudez said

To answer fool #1-Do illegal aliens comply with the black lettering of our laws? They're not defenseless, they're criminals who have committed fraud and broken laws. Politics have nothing to do with it.

For fool #2 - Can't deport the employers, they're LEGAL residents and US citizens. The employers will get their punishment. Those "employees" are illegal aliens and are prohibited from holding jobs in the US and he SHOULD be going after them DUH!

They MUST comply with the black lettering of our laws. Have a nice day y'hear?