Thread: With federal help, raid nets aliens

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local...-news-local-mp

Middlesex authorities seize 14 undocumented Mexican workers from two residences on a Hardyville farm.

BY MATHEW PAUST
mpaust@dailypress.com804-642-1738
November 8, 2005

MIDDLESEX -- Too many unidentifiable Mexicans getting busted for minor offenses prompted the Middlesex County Sheriff's Office to seek federal help.

The result came Oct. 28 when a raid at a produce farm in Hardyville netted 14 Mexicans who did not have any documentation to show they were in the United States legally, said Sheriff's Capt. M.E. Sampson.

"We were just looking for a little help in (identifying) these people," he said. "Most of them had Mexican voter registration cards, but nothing local for identification.

"We were getting an influx of complaints, and deputies were issuing summonses for small things - drunk in public, and one attempting to break into a convenience store - but no way to locate them if they didn't show up in court."

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates 200,000-250,000 illegal immigrants live in Virginia, but no countywide estimates were available Monday.

Sampson said Middlesex deputies accompanied enforcement agents from U.S. Customs, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service and the Social Security Administration when they executed a federal search warrant at Heart Seventeen Inc., a farm operated by Tommy Crittenden.

Crittenden declined to comment on the case Monday. "At least not at this time," he said.

The 13 men and a woman the federal agents took into custody lived at two residences on the farm, Sampson said.

"Every one of them told the agents, 'No, I don't have any ID,' " he said of those who were arrested.

He said agents also seized business records from the farm office.

Attempts to reach an Immigration Services spokesman for comment on whether the investigation included other local employers of migrant workers, such as other farms, seafood processors, and lumber and construction companies, were unsuccessful.

Sampson said he was unaware of whether the investigation would cast a wider net in the county.

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Now if they send these 14 back across the border and Tommy Crittenden UNDER THE JAIL..................

I agree, jail term and a HUGE fine! That's what needs to happen to the ones who hire ILLEGALS. Maybe then, others will think twice before they do it.