Thread: Immigration Bust at BMW

Immigration Bust at BMW
Seven Illegal Aliens Arrested

Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007 - 10:02 PM Updated: 05:08 PM

By Kristen Nastasia

Working in the Upstate illegally. Federal agents say seven people busted at BMW were all using someone else's identity.


The bust at BMW is only part of a bigger problem. Every day identities are being stolen so illegal workers can slip into this country without being detected.



Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounded up seven people they say are here in the Upstate illegally. BMW says it knew about the bust, and worked with investigators.


The employees don't work directly for BMW, they worked for its dining contractor Eurest. The arrests happened Wednesday morning at BMW's training center where the company says it brought the workers to be arrested. That's across the street from the main plant on Highway 101 in Greer.



More and more ICE agents are hauling illegals into federal courthouses around the country. Because not only is more of this happening, but stealing your identity is easy and pretty cheap. I searched on the internet and within seconds thousands of hits popped up, ways to get identities and fake work visa cards for as little as $200.


ICE agents say all of these workers were here using stolen social security numbers and fake visas they used to get working papers. This crime has become so common more than 500,000 US citizens were victims of in 2005 according to the Department of Homeland Security. They were being held up for taxes they don't owe, and in some cases getting denied for jobs or passports because there's some one else already using them.


Many times children are targeted because they don't have any history attached to their number. In this case investigators say one of these people was using the identity of a 9-year-old boy.


The seven workers are now behind bars and likely facing prison and hefty fines along with deportation. Investigators say five are from Mexico and the other two are from Honduras.


So we wanted to get to the root of what the real issue is here. I talked to an international business attorney for some perspective on why so many people sneak in here illegally, making those of us with US citizenship almost targets.



"Getting a work Visa to work in this country is very time consuming and expensive, particularly for manual labor, unskilled workers. It takes 6-9 months and it's only good for a year and you spend a lot of money," said International Business Attorney Jay Rogers.



The dining companies released the following response to the bust:

We sincerely regret any disruption that may have occurred yesterday from the detention of foodservice workers employed in our café at BMW. Eurest is cooperating in full with all law enforcement authorities, and we will seek guidance and work with authorities to improve upon our internal procedures as necessary.



Eurest is dedicated to consistently delivering superior service to our customers and will ensure that those services remain uninterrupted despite the events of yesterday. We are working closely with our associates and customers to meet that commitment.




The problem is many of these fake documents look quite real so it's hard for many companies to combat this problem. We talked to Eurest, the dining services company that employed these seven people. They tell us they're working with the Department of Homeland Security on the case and will beef up their security measures as needed to try and prevent this. But the experts only expect this problem to get worse.



http://www.wspa.com/midatlantic/spa/new ... -0015.html

Using the identities of children, ruining people's lives, changing their income levels, denying Americans services, and yet the stories are generally sympathetic to the illegal aliens and less to the victims of their crimes.

What about the costs to innocent individuals when these people steal from them? What about the costs to these children and their families as they untangle these messes?

Psalm 91

Good points GP. I'm soooo tired of boo hoo stories in the MSM. What about the costs to US middle class citizens who have to work 2-3 jobs to buy health insurance for their families and to send their kids to private school because many public schools have been ruined.

More and more ICE agents are hauling illegals into federal courthouses around the country. Because not only is more of this happening, but stealing your identity is easy and pretty cheap. I searched on the internet and within seconds thousands of hits popped up, ways to get identities and fake work visa cards for as little as $200.

Outrageous!!!

Originally Posted by Populist

Good points GP. I'm soooo tired of boo hoo stories in the MSM. What about the costs to US middle class citizens who have to work 2-3 jobs to buy health insurance for their families and to send their kids to private school because many public schools have been ruined.

Every time you read an MSM sob story, be sure to call and write to give both the writer and the editor hell. Tell them exactly what you said above.

My identity was stolen and they even opened up credit card accounts in my name of which the crdit card company tried to make ME pay.I now am on a 7 year lock down at the 3 big credit report companies and you have to call me before any credit is given.Don't you know these theives went in and added another phone number to call.........Unbelievable !! I am constantly checking my credit history now,so yes it wreaks havoc on people.

Arrests At BMW Heat Up Immigration Controversy

Fri Jul 27, 5:51 PM ET



Immigration legislation is taking center stage in the Upstate, thanks to the arrest of illegal workers earlier this week.

Seven people -- five Mexican nationals and two Honduran -- are in the custody of U.S. Marshalls. Some legislators are pointing to their story and calling it a glaring example of the need for something to be done about illegal immigration when the session reconvenes in January.

Immigrations Customs Enforcement (ICE) made the arrests on Wednesday.

The seven people arrested worked for Eurest, a company providing cafeteria services at the BMW facility. They're charged with Social Security fraud, misuse of visas and false claims of citizenship.

State Sen. Jim Ritchie called the arrests an example of a growing challenge the state faces. He said immigration is the No.1 topic on the minds of South Carolinians. With at least 50,000 illegal immigrants living in the state, legislators are working on a number of bills to face the issue head-on.

One of them is Senate Bill 392. It requires verification of legal status. The bill also increases the punishment for people such as the seven arrested this week who allegedly used fake documents to gain employment. Those supplying the documents would also face penalties.

Ritchie said, "We think if you attack the incentives that people have now to break the law for a competitive advantage then we can make a big change in South Carolina to improve the legal workforce opportunities."

The bill has already passed the Senate and is pending in the House of Representatives, which meets again in January.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/wyff/20070727/lo_wyff/13771806

There are A LOT more than SEVEN out there!!

Yes, people, they netted 7 - can you believe it? I wonder how many months, how many man hours, and how many states were involved in this huge catch?

Give me a break - this is getting sillier and sillier.