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Federal agents arrest 13 illegal immigrants
Thursday, May 25, 2006
By BRENDAN KIRBY
Staff Reporter

Federal agents raided the U.S. Coast Guard's Aviation Training Center in Mobile on Wednesday, arresting 13 workers they said were in the country illegally.

Mickey Pledger, the resident agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Mobile, said six of the workers had no legal documentation and will be deported.

Seven more workers, who authorities said were working for construction contractors performing work on the base, appeared in federal court in Mobile on Wednesday afternoon. They are charged with possession of fake resident alien cards or Social Security numbers.

Pledger said he believes the workers were helping build an airplane hangar on the base. He said authorities have no information that the men were engaged in other crimes or terrorist activity. But he added, "Being present on that base is a national security risk, as far as I'm concerned. The whole issue is who these people are."

Court-appointed attorneys for the men, who came from Mexico, said they hoped to put their clients' cases on the fast track, allowing them to plead guilty quickly and be deported back to their home country. They disputed the contention that the workers posed a security risk.

"My opinion, and one of my clients said this in court, is they were just here trying to make a living," said Clark Stankoski, a Fairhope lawyer who represents three of the defendants.

Affidavits filed in federal court indicate that Coast Guard officials alerted immigration authorities that some of the workers for the contracting firms were presenting "questionable forms of identification" when they came on the base. For instance, according to the affidavit, one of the forms being used was a card labeled "international driver's license."

That is not a valid, government-issued form of identification, according to court records.

Pledger said immigration officers asked for identification from 50 people working at the base Wednesday. Of those, he said, 13 either had no ID or fake papers.

The Aviation Training Center is the only facility in the nation that trains Coast Guard pilots. Personnel from the base also conduct drug surveillance and assist search-and-rescue operations.

It is against federal law to knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and Pledger said his office has been under pressure to step up enforcement in the area. But he added that employers are not required to verify the authenticity of their employees' work papers. In addition, he said, there are ways contractors can further insulate themselves.

"A lot of employers in this area employ these guys as independent contractors. When they do that, they're basically absolved of all liability," he said.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, federal officials have taken a harder line toward undocumented workers with access to military installations and other sensitive facilities. In January 2005, immigration officials arrested 17 undocumented workers at a chemical refinery in Mobile.

Sweeps by federal agents last year caught six people at the Belle Chasse Naval Air Station near New Orleans.

Federal Defender Carlos Williams, who was appointed to represent four of the workers arrested Wednesday, said he does not believe any of his clients have been deported before or have criminal records. If that is the case, they would likely avoid prison time and proceed to deportation proceedings, he said.

(Staff Reporter George Werneth contributed to this report.)




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