Thread: Island workers charged in raid (Baldhead, NC)

Island workers charged in raid
By Veronica Gonzalez
and Angela Mack
veronica.gonzalez@starnewsonline.com



Bald Head Island | Twenty-nine immigrants left Southport by boat early Tuesday morning to build homes on this Brunswick County island. Before they arrived, the U.S. Coast Guard stopped four boats ranging in size from 24 to 34 feet loaded with the construction workers.

Immigration agents took custody of the workers, many of whom by Thursday were undergoing deportation proceedings.

Twenty-two immigrants were charged with illegal entry into the United States, a misdemeanor, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That means they entered the country without permission.

The fate of the seven other immigrants was unknown.

Meanwhile, some Hispanic immigrants who heard about the arrests worked in fear Thursday. Some knew those arrested. Others simply heard about the arrests.

“We are a little bit frightened,” said Enrique Hernandez, a landscaper putting pine needles around the shrubs of a new development. “We don’t know who they were.”

Regardless, all of them were sympathetic to those arrested. “I am sad because I have been here 15 years, and I can’t fix my papers,” said one construction worker who lives in Wilmington. He didn’t want to be identified because he snuck into the country from Mexico.

Who are they?

The undocumented immigrants arrested Tuesday came from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

One was from Canada. Four were juveniles, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Another Mexican national was living in the country with an expired visa, ICE said.

The construction jobs on the island are the least sought after because they require traveling about 20 minutes by boat or ferry and the location is isolated, said Ivan Cortes, a contractor whose family builds a lot of the homes on the island. But the jobs pay well.

“Nobody works in Bald Head Island,” said Cortes, who was born in Puerto Rico.

The arrests underscore the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to catch people who hire undocumented immigrants.

This year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested nearly 142 percent more undocumented workers in workplace enforcement raids than last year. Last year, immigration agents arrested 1,116 undocumented workers. This year, it has arrested 2,700.

People who repeatedly hire undocumented workers can face up to a $10,000 fine for each worker. First-time offenders risk being charged with a misdemeanor and face a penalty of $250 to $2,500 for each worker.

Additionally, employers who once faced a fine are now at risk of having property seized by ICE agents, and they also might be charged with a felony if they continue to hire undocumented workers.

Those are just added tools immigration agents are using.

“This is the worst I’ve seen here yet,” said Cortes, who has lived in the United States for 27 years.

The island

Wooden frames rise from the ground on parts of the island, which was established as a village in 1985.

Nowadays, a little more than 200 full-time residents live on the island, a secluded haven of multi-million dollar homes nestled among trees and brush.

The island is accessible only by ferry, and transportation on the island is limited to bikes or golf carts.

Each year, 60 to 75 homes are built on the island, according to the village’s Building Inspections Department. Sale prices for homes now on the market there peak as high as $4 million.

One of the homebuilders, Luis Cortes Jr., an employee with Cortes Builders Inc. and Ivan Cortes’ brother, said he was driving the company’s boat to Bald Head Island about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday when the U.S. Coast Guard stopped it.

The company, which is owned by his father, employs between 10 and 18 workers and has done construction debris removal, fork-lifting services and other work on the island for more than 12 years.

He said about nine employees, mainly Puerto Ricans, were on the boat when he was stopped.

“They were stopping everybody that came over there,” Cortes said. “I just figured it was a regular routine check.”

They were told to hand over their IDs and asked what they were doing and where they were headed, Cortes said.

“None of our workers were arrested,” he said, adding that throughout the day, he heard rumors about other companies that might have been caught with undocumented workers. “I would love to hear the whole story. I’m just glad everything was good on our end.”

An employee who answered the phone for Cortes Brothers Construction, a separate entity from Cortes Builders Inc., confirmed that the company also works on Bald Head Island and said two of its workers were arrested Tuesday and will be deported.

The company was not listed on a list of 15 general contractors that village staff provided to the Star-News on Thursday.

How it happened

In the past week, U.S. Coast Guard officials noticed small boats traveling to the island overloaded with workers. They were being used by a private company, according to a news release from the justice department.

So the Coast Guard stopped four boats Tuesday between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. to make sure they were safe.

Since then, ICE has placed a lien on the four boats – a new tool they’re using to punish people who use undocumented labor, said Oak Island Coast Guard Station Petty Officer Kurt Yockel.

The Coast Guard detained four or five U.S. citizens who were operating the boats, but it’s unknown if they will be charged with a crime.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been boarding boats and checking the IDs of all onboard.

“We recognized the problem with the illegal immigrants in the area that we were stopping,” Yockel said.

When they realized many of them had no identification from the United States, they notified immigration agents.

“The cooperation was outstanding between the agencies,” Yockel said. “Within three days, we had the operation set up.”

Veronica Gonzalez: 343-2008

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs ... 004/news01

I know from what I saw they missed 3 times what they got. But it's a start and our Coast Guard is in there trying.
CIO

I find this interesting because I've never heard of the Coast Guard arresting illegal aliens who are already living in the US. Is this a Coast Guard policy? Did the Coast Guard originally go after this vessel because it was carrying illegal aliens or was there also another violation? Imagine what they could find on some of our big cities' ferry systems!

Lets just say this ingenious Coast Guard Unit observed over crowded vessel(s) and went from there.

I guess that's one way to keep them from running.

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs ... /608120395


Follow-Up
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Article published Aug 12, 2006
For illegal workers, the ride to work could end in deportation

Occupational Hazard
Bald Head Island |
Hispanic members of St. Brendan the Navigator Catholic Church in Shallotte likely saw Jose Zelaya-Padilla playing guitar during Mass, leading Bible study or working with teenagers.
When he wasn't busy with church activities, the 32-year-old worked as a carpenter - most recently on this Brunswick County island. Not any more.
Zelaya-Padilla and his brother, Angel Antonio Zelaya-Padilla, were among the 29 undocumented immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on their way to work Tuesday.
After stopping boats during routine safety checks, the U.S. Coast Guard noticed many aboard didn't have any papers from this country. So they contacted immigration agents, who arrested the undocumented construction workers that morning onboard four private boats operated by U.S. citizens.
On Thursday, 22 of the undocumented immigrant workers pleaded guilty to entering the country without documents, a misdemeanor. The fate of seven other workers is unknown.
The workers came from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. One was from Canada.
A Honduran, Zelaya-Padilla came to the United States so he could earn money to support his wife and two children back home, said the Rev. Robert Ippolito with St. Brendan.
At church, he loved to show off the pictures of his 9-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter on his cell phone, he said.
"He was the linchpin of my Hispanic group," Ippolito said of Zelaya-Padilla. "He was a key member of the church group here. He really was a leader."
Ippolito went to the Federal Court hearing in Wilmington on Thursday when the undocumented workers were arraigned.
He said many of the immigrants were men. Some were single. Others left their wives behind in their home countries.
Zelaya-Padilla once considered entering the priesthood before he married, Ippolito said.
Instead, he became involved in the church.
"He was kind of the animator," Ippolito said. "He could inspire others to do things. He always had a smile on his face - even in court."
There are two ways to get to this island filled with million-dollar homes about two nautical miles off the coast off Southport.
If you're a tourist or resident, you travel from Indigo Plantation.
If you work there, you take the other ferry near the Southport-Fort Fisher ferry dock.
Either way, the ride lasts about 20 minutes. On land, one must travel by golf cart or bike.
On the workers' ferry, Hispanic laborers stood shoulder to shoulder with white workers who said immigrant laborers depress wages and receive free medical care.
"They hold our wages down," said Leslie Pollard, a painter and subcontractor. "Someone can hire them for $6, $7 an hour. No one else is gonna work for that."
On Friday, more than 100 workers packed the ferry about 3:30 p.m. toting tools, coolers or soft drinks.
Wood dust or paint stained their T-shirts, pants and baseball caps.
Some Hispanic workers said they feared for their future.
That's because rumors abounded in the Hispanic community about immigration agents deporting people.
Some workers stayed home for fear they would be arrested.
Pollard said people should be allowed to better themselves.
"But they need to be legal," she said. "They need to pay taxes. They need to pay insurance."
Veronica Gonzalez: 343-2008
veronica.gonzalez@starnewsonline.com


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Kleenex on me this go round.

A Honduran, Zelaya-Padilla came to the United States so he could earn money to support his wife and two children back home, said the Rev. Robert Ippolito with St. Brendan.
At church, he loved to show off the pictures of his 9-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter on his cell phone, he said.
"He was the linchpin of my Hispanic group," Ippolito said of Zelaya-Padilla. "He was a key member of the church group here. He really was a leader."

Geez, they are acting like the illegal alien died.

Kleenex on me this go round.

Thanks had_enuf, this issue is definitely worthy of a tissue, NOT!

If he is in the country illegally, then he is in the country illegally.

St. James is another high dollar gated community within 8 or some miles of Baldhead Island with lots of transplanted people living there. St James is full of illegals working construction and it also has been reported. I was advised today by a St James smiling employee that yesterday only four (4) possible illegals entered the gate to work construction. Seems there is a rumor going around they are next. I need to find out who would start such rumors.

The only ones upset about the BHI raid are the illegals and some of the ones employing them. Everyone else I have talked to on BHI this week are smiling about it.