http://www.nptelegraph.com/site/news.cf ... 1813&rfi=6

Telegraph staff reports
12/21/2005

Fourteen illegal aliens working for a sub-contractor at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center in North Platte were arrested Monday, according to a news release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Those arrested were employed by Reich Installation Services Inc., and were installing shelving at the distribution center. Wal-Mart cooperated with the ICE investigation.

"These arrests are part of ICE's efforts to restore integrity to the nation's legal immigration system," said George Bailey, resident agent in charge of the ICE office in North Platte.

The aliens, all citizens of Mexico, were arrested without incident at the distribution center about 6 p.m. Monday. ICE is holding 12 of them without bond pending their removal to Mexico. One of the 12 requested a hearing before a federal immigration judge. Two others had already been scheduled for a hearing after being arrested for illegally working at a Wal-Mart distribution center in Philadelphia earlier this year.

The investigation into the specific circumstances of the illegal aliens' employment is ongoing.

In March, the federal government reached a landmark $11 million global civil settlement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., arising out of an investigation into the alleged hiring of illegal aliens by independent contractors that provided cleaning services to Wal-Mart Stores throughout the United States from 1998 through 2003. The civil settlement did not entail any admission of wrongdoing by Wal-Mart.

In addition, 12 corporations that provided contract janitorial services to Wal-Mart stores throughout the U.S. between 1998 and 2002, and were alleged to have actually employed illegal aliens, agreed to forfeit an additional $4 million to the U.S gpvernment. They also agreed to enter corporate guilty pleas to criminal immigration charges.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of four integrated divisions that form this enforcement agency, which has broad responsibility for a number of key homeland security priorities.