http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/14053866.htm

Posted on Thu, Mar. 09, 2006

Illegal-immigrant arrests delays full Wal-Mart opening
Schuylkill County distribution center to open in two phases, one this summer and one next spring.

By CHRIS PARKER The Morning Call

The arrest of 125 illegal immigrants in November has pushed back the complete opening of an $80 million Wal-Mart distribution center in Schuylkill County until next year.

The center, being built in Butler Township and expected to bring up to 700 jobs to the area, will open in two phases instead of all at once, said Wal-Mart spokesman Keith Morris.

The dry grocery products part of the center will open as planned this summer, but the perishable grocery section won’t begin operations until spring 2007, Morris said.

Frank Zukas, president of Schuylkill County Economic Development Corp., blamed the illegal immigrant arrests. The arrests were “100 percent of the delay,” Zukas said. “They stopped construction completely after that.”

After stopping the day of the arrests, work gradually started again, but subcontractors who hired the illegal immigrants were fired and the new ones had to get confirmation of immigration documents, he said.

Morris acknowledged that the arrests stopped construction, but downplayed their role in the delay, saying Wal-Mart’s other perishable grocery distribution centers have done the job so well that the Schuylkill center isn’t immediately needed.

“There was certainly a delay in the overall construction that shifted the opening by maybe about two months,” he said. But “the delay [in opening the perishable groceries section] is due to the capacity within our network of existing facilities. We need this facility opened in spring 2006, but do not need the perishable part open until 2007.”

Morris said the distribution center is 90 percent complete.

He said Wal-Mart plans to hire about 400 people when the center’s dry grocery products section opens this summer and 300 more when the perishable section opens.

“We have committed to a certain number of jobs when this facility opens,” he said.

Zukas said he’s pleased with the company’s schedule.

“We’re obviously happy that we now have some time frames from the company in regards to when they will ship and with regards to startup,” he said. “There are a lot of people waiting for jobs. This gives them a little more information as to when the start dates might be. Seven hundred jobs in our community will have a pretty substantial impact.”

On Nov. 17, search warrants were executed at six companies on the job site at the Schuylkill Highridge Business Park outside Pottsville. The illegal workers were from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Some of them used fake documents to obtain employment, officials said. They have since been deported.

Agents got the search warrants after learning 10 workers employed by Houston’s Destin Drywall & Paint used Social Security numbers that didn’t match their names. Three others used Social Security numbers that were never issued, according to an affidavit unsealed Nov. 18 at U.S. District Court in Scranton.