llegal immigrants found making military parachutes

06:17 PM EDT on Tuesday, August 12, 2008

By RAD BERKY / NewsChannel 36
E-mail Rad: RBerky@WCNC.com




59 illegal immigrants arrested in raid

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Calling it a possible threat to national security, federal immigration agents raided a parachute manufacturing company in Asheville on Tuesday.

They took into custody 59 illegal aliens who were working on the assembly line making parachutes for the U.S. armed forces.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge for Charlotte Del Richburg said removing the illegal immigrants plugged a gap at the Mill Manufacturing plant that could have been a threat to members of the military who used those parachutes.

NewsChannel 36 reporter Rad Berky was at the county jail in Henderson County when an I.C.E. bus arrived with those who had been picked up.

There were 40 women and 19 men who are now being processed. Agents say 29 of them, mostly women, will be released on their own recognisance for humanitarian reasons, meaning they have children or health issues.

The others will be held pending hearings in Atlanta that could lead to deportation.

Mills Manufacturing has made parachutes for the military since World War II. ICE agents say the company cooperated in the investigation and had been duped by false identity papers provided by the illegal aliens.

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