Thread: Illegal immigrants arrested at airport as part of national

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Thursday, May 19, 2005
Illegal immigrants arrested at airport as part of national effort, officials say

JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORT


The nine immigrant workers arrested Tuesday at Smith Reynolds Airport were rounded up as part of a national effort to find illegal aliens doing work for the Pentagon, immigration officials said yesterday.

Officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Defense Criminal Investigative Services took the workers into custody during a raid at a hangar leased by Aerospace Manufacturing, which does maintenance work on U.S. Navy planes.

"This incident greatly concerns us given the fact that in March we arrested 27 aliens illegally working at another North Carolina airport," Tom O'Connell, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement resident agent-in-charge, said in a statement.

O'Connell was referring to a March 8 raid at Timco Aviation Services Inc.'s operation near Piedmont Tri-ad International Airport, in which 27 contract workers were arrested on allegations that they were illegally working in the country.

Eight of the nine arrested this week are from Great Britain. The other suspect is from New Zealand, according to officials. The British citizens were identified as John Allen, Andrew Tucker, Robert Donnelly, Brett Wilson, Gary Butler, David Grimshaw, Christopher Gee and Andrew Brown. The New Zealand citizen was identified as James Kirkwood.

They were initially taken to the Forsyth County Jail, but were not there last night. The immigration-enforcement unit said that the men were put into removal proceedings.

They were working on P-3 Orion aircraft, which is the Navy's primary long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft and is also used for electronic surveillance.

The statement from immigration enforcement said that investigations had been conducted at 200 airports and that more than 5,800 businesses have been audited as part of Operation Tarmac. More than 1,100 unauthorized workers have been arrested, and 775 charges have been filed.

The workers in Winston-Salem entered the U.S. un-der the visa waiver program, which allows citizens of certain countries to use passports to enter for business or pleasure stays, the immigration agency said.

More than 1,100 unauthorized workers have been arrested, and 775 charges have been filed.

Shouldnt they all be charged? Also How come they only got 1,100 if this is a nationwide sweep. Operation Falcon got them 10,340 US conducted April 4, 2005 through April 10.

More than 1,100 unauthorized workers have been arrested, and 775 charges have been filed.

Shouldnt they all be charged? Also How come they only got 1,100 if this is a nationwide sweep. Operation Falcon got them 10,340 US conducted April 4, 2005 through April 10. Seems to me if they could arrest this many people in a week, they could arrest a lot more illegal immigrants.