Thread: More than 100 workers arrested at Wal-Mart construction site

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/13193678.htm

Posted on Thu, Nov. 17, 2005

More than 100 workers arrested at Wal-Mart construction site

MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press

Federal immigration agents arrested more than 100 workers Thursday at a Wal-Mart distribution center under construction in eastern Pennsylvania, authorities said.

The workers were detained on suspected immigration violations and loaded onto buses to be taken to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers for processing, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc Raimondi said.

More than 50 federal immigration agents, joined by the U.S. Labor Department, Social Security Administration and state police, raided the construction site at the High Ridge Business Park, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heires said the detained workers were not employed by Wal-Mart, but by subcontractors.

"Consistent with our corporate practice, we have written contracts with these subcontractors requiring that they follow all applicable local, state and federal employment laws," he said in a statement. "We will cooperate fully with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. attorney's office in this matter."

The construction site is near Interstate 81, just northwest of Pottsville.

Schuylkill County Sheriff Frank McAndrew said at least 120 illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico, were detained. That number was far more than ICE - formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service - had anticipated, because the agency arrived with only one bus. McAndrew arranged for two more buses, which he said took the workers to Philadelphia for processing.

The sheriff said he began investigating the site more than two months ago after getting complaints from local tradespeople that illegal immigrants were working there, and he contacted federal immigration agents after verifying their allegations.

"You've got a situation here where illegal immigrants are coming into Schuylkill County and taking (local union workers') jobs for eight bucks an hour. They are working for poverty wages, and creating unemployment because our skilled tradesmen are out of work," McAndrew said.

Last month, Wal-Mart shut down work on seven stores under construction in North Dakota to check for illegal aliens after two illegal immigrants working on Wal-Mart projects in Bismarck were charged with molesting two 13-year-old girls. Charges against one of the suspects were dropped after authorities found out he was a juvenile.

In 2003, a raid of 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states led to the arrests of 245 illegal workers. An affidavit related to that case claims that a pair of senior Wal-Mart executives knew cleaning contractors were hiring illegal immigrants. Wal-Mart says that no senior official had any such knowledge.

http://www.wnep.com/Global/story.asp?S=4133547&nav=5ka4

Suspected Illegal Immigrant Raid in Schuylkill County



Thursday, November 17, 12:20 p.m.
By Bob Reynolds

Federal agents dropped in on a distribution center that is under construction in Schuylkill County Thursday morning to round up workers who are allegedly in this country illegally.

Agents from the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration, state police and members of the Schuylkill County Sheriff's office arrived at the Wal-Mart

Distribution Center that is going up in the High Ridge Business Park near Minersville, Pennsylvania.

They were looking for suspected illegal immigrants. The workers were placed on white buses brought in by the federal agents. In all, three buses were brought to the business park. Everyone taken into custody was expected to be taken to a processing area. The government will then determine what will be done with the workers from there.

The name of the construction company that hired the workers has not been released. Investigators say the company will probably be questioned by the agents as to how the undocumented workers got their jobs.