Deputies arrest 6 in employer-sanctions raid on Phx company

azfamily.com
by Catherine Holland
Video report by Ryan O'Donnell
Posted on November 1, 2011 at 8:40 AM
Updated today at 9:28 AM

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies arrested six people during an employer-sanctions raid at Prisma Graphic in South Phoenix Tuesday morning.

Deputies converged on the business at 29th Street and Broadway Road at about 7 a.m.

Prisma Graphic employs more than 130 people, according to information on its website. Deputies were looking for 17 people. Six have been arrested. According to the company president , the remaining 11 have not worked there for about a year.

MCSO reportedly received two tips that some of those employees are undocumented immigrants who used false or stolen identification to get their jobs.

According to MCSO, some employees were seen printing out Wells Fargo credit-card information, government hunting tags and Health Net information.

"We don't racial profile," Arpaio said. "We already know when we come in here who we're going to arrest."

Arpaio said investigators will keep looking for those other 11 suspects.

Arpaio and his deputies have conducted 54 similar raids in the past few years, the most recent being at C&M Homes, a Mesa construction company, in early October.

"They don't seem to care, these businesses that keep hiring illegal aliens with false ID," Arpaio said at the time. I'm going to keep cracking down. ... I think they should do more, be more vigilant."

Identity theft is a Class 4 felony.

Prisma Graphic opened as a boutique printing shop in Phoenix more than 30 years ago. According to the company's website, the privately-held business had just 30 employees and $1 million in sales in 2000. It has since grown and is now headquartered in an 82,000-square-foot facility, has more than quadrupled its staff and posts $24 million in annual sales.

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