Thread: ICE detains 15, accuses them of using fake documents

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15543435.htm

Posted on Sun, Sep. 17, 2006

ICE detains 15, accuses them of using fake documents

BY MIAMI HERALD STAFF


Immigration officers have detained 15 foreign nationals and accused them of using fake documents while working for a company doing roofing contract work at a federal detention facility in south Miami-Dade, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday.

Barbara Gonzalez, the agency's spokeswoman in Miami, said the 15 men were detained Sept. 7 after Bureau of Prisons officers at the Federal Correctional Facility in south Miami-Dade stopped three of them because they suspected their immigration documents were fraudulent.

Gonzalez said Bureau of Prison officers contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement which dispatched investigators. Gonzalez said the three detained initially were scheduled to work at the facility with a roofing contractor.

''Further information developed by ICE agents revealed that 15 individuals working as contractors were illegal aliens,'' Gonzalez said. ``They had fraudulent immigration documents.''

Gonzalez said 13 of the detained men came from Mexico and the other two from Guatemala. Twelve of the men had fraudulent green cards and 3 fraudulent Social Security cards, she said.

All were transported to the Krome detention center in west Miami-Dade and put in deportation proceedings, Gonzalez said.

Disclosure of the Miami detentions came three days after the two alleged leaders of a nationwide ''employee-leasing conspiracy'' allegedly involving hundreds of undocumented foreign nationals pleaded guilty before Miami U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra, who sentenced a third defendant in the case.

The Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Jaroslaw Sawczuk, 39, a Polish citizen formerly of Coral Springs, and Jozef Bronislaw Bogacki, 43, a Polish-born naturalized U.S. citizen living in Clearwater, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to transport, house and encourage undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States, commit visa, wire, mail, and tax fraud, and money laundering.

Judge Marra sentenced a third defendant, Pavel Preus, 39, a Polish citizen residing in Pompano Beach, to 37 months in prison and 36 months supervised release. He pleaded guilty to similar charges on Sept. 13, the agency said.

Three other Slovak defendants -- Lucia Kanis, 31, Ivan Kanis, 39, and Andor Pikali, 37, -- are at large and believed to be abroad, the agency said.

You know things are rediculous when...

...officers have detained 15 foreign nationals and accused them of using fake documents while working for a company doing roofing contract work at a federal detention facility

... no irony there, eh?

That is nothing new in Miami. When they were building the Carnival Center for the Preforming Arts, ICE was regularly catching illegals working on the project. Even Donald Trumps Condos are being built by illegal construction workers. At least more and more of them are getting caught. Tomorrow I am doing my duty and calling ICE regarding the cleaning company that cleans my condo complex. There are many that are illegals as they do not speak English or attend school which teenagers that age do. Some of the girls look like they are about 16 years old if that.