http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?st ... 30050&c=87

Feds arrest 56 workers

Warrants served on subcontractor working at Schreiber Foods site

Susan Redden
Globe Staff Writer
2/23/06
Print this story

CARTHAGE, Mo. - Nearly 60 illegal immigrants were arrested Wednesday in Carthage when federal agents served warrants against a subcontractor working on the construction of a new distribution center for Schreiber Foods.

Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took into custody 56 workers, all said to be residents of Mexico. Officers with the Carthage Police Department and the Jasper County Sheriff's Department assisted in the arrests.

The action came after the federal agency served a search warrant against Reich Installation Services Inc., of Pewaukee, Wis., working as a subcontractor at the Schreiber site at 1206 W. Fairview Ave.

In addition to arresting the immigrants for residing illegally in the United States, the criminal search warrant served by federal agents authorized the seizure of business, financial and personnel records, as well as computers maintained by Reich Installation. Of the 56 people taken into custody, 28 were Reich Installation employees, and eight others worked for Top Flight, another construction site subcontractor.

Other work affiliations still were being determined in interviews as the immigrants were being processed for deportation, said Carl Rusnok, a public information officer for the federal agency.

"Reich Installation Services has been associated with at least two other U.S. sites where illegal aliens have been arrested within the last year," said Elissa Brown, special agent-in-charge of the agency's Chicago office. "Employers must get the message that hiring illegal aliens is against the law. ICE will especially scrutinize those employers who are repeatedly identified in these operations."

Brown oversees the agency's Office of Investigations for a six-state area: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

It is against federal law to knowingly hire or continue to employ illegal immigrants. Punishments range from $200 for a paperwork violation to $10,000 per hiring violation, and they can include potential prison sentences.

Brown said Wednesday's operation was part of the agency's strategy for work-site enforcement aimed at promoting national security, protecting critical infrastructure and ensuring fair labor standards. Rusnok described Wednesday's events as part of "an ongoing investigation."

Dennis Veach, Carthage police chief, said his department was contacted by the federal agency about two weeks ago for help in gathering information on workers at the construction site.

Veach said the workers arrested were to be taken to the regional customs office in Springfield.

According to its Web site, Reich Installation Services designs and installs custom warehouse distribution systems in factories and warehouses.

The Stellar Group, based in Jacksonville, Fla., is the general contractor on the Schreiber project.

The Globe was unsuccessful in attempts to learn whether Wednesday's arrests would have an effect on the construction schedule. Telephone calls to the local office of the Stellar Group and to its corporate headquarters were not returned.

Attempts to reach a spokesman for Reich also were unsuccessful. The person who answered the telephone at the Wisconsin office said there was no one there who could answer questions from a reporter, and then hung up.

Schreiber officials last August announced plans for the $27 million distribution center and said it would be the company's largest distribution site in the United States.

Agency lineage

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one component of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. They are parts of Border and Transportation Security, which is underneath the Department of Homeland Security. The mission of Border and Transportation Security is to secure the nation's air, land, and sea borders. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services until 2003 was the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.