Thread: Montana too!

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Wednesday, September 28, 2005 Photos and articles ©1996-2005 the Bozeman Daily Chronicle










Undocumented Mexican workers arrested in Big Sky

By BETH SLOVIC, Chronicle Staff Writer

Seventeen illegal aliens from Mexico were arrested in Big Sky Tuesday, according to an immigration official with the Department of Homeland Security in Helena.

The aliens, all men, were in the process of being deported Wednesday and were on their way to a detention facility in Denver, where they will have an immigration hearing.





All of them had been working in the construction trade in Big Sky, Monique Hirko, a federal official who interviewed the men, said. They had been earning salaries ranging from $8 to $22 an hour.

Immigration enforcement agents went to Big Sky on Tuesday to investigate a tip that a landscaping company there was employing workers without proper documentation.

However, none of those workers was on the job Tuesday.

The agents then began to investigate other job sites near Big Sky's town center and on the property of Spanish Peaks resort, near that development's golf course.

The men the agents arrested were working for four different employers.

According to DHS, those companies are: D.P. Framing of Colorado, R. Davidson Masonry of Bozeman, McCasland Brothers Concrete of Texas, and the independent subcontractor Martin Valenzuela, who was working for Bar JP Inc., of Big Sky and Belgrade.

Valenzuela is himself an illegal alien, Hirko said.

No one from any of the four companies returned phone calls seeking comment by press time Wednesday.

Peter Forsch, president of Spanish Peaks, said dozens of contractors employing dozens of subcontractors work on the development project, and that Spanish Peaks does not take responsibility for the employment practices of those businesses.

"It is not something that we monitor," Forsch said.

Some of the men who were arrested had purchased fake Social Security cards, while others had no forms of documentation, Hirko said.

In addition to the 17 men who were arrested, a few workers managed to run from immigration officials, she said.

An investigation into whether the business owners knowingly employed the illegal aliens is ongoing, she added.

If they did, they could face criminal charges.

Beth Slovic is at beth@dailychronicle.com

For you here who don't know Montana the state capital in Helena is like 150 miles from Bozeman and farther to Big Sky! The interesting thing here is that BHS or ICE officials went all the way to Big Sky from Helena, another 35 miles or so south of Bozeman to check out a tip...I can call the INS in Aurora, Colorado where these ILLEGALS are being held at the INS detention facility, and the INS here in Aurora will do nothing! 5 miles away if that!

Probably, because Montana has not been overun with illegals and jobs are hard to find these BHS or ICE employees acted! Kind of funny is it not?

Why do they have to have a hearing as the article states? Take them to El Paso NOW and get rid of them!

Why in the world do we need to process illegals through our court system? If the person is not supposed to be here, get them the hell out of here. This is why we have so many problems.