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  1. #1
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    Company fires immigrants who fled after sweep

    http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12 ... 1lo133.htm

    By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer

    NEW BEDFORD -- Between 25 and 30 Latin American employees of Ahead Inc. were fired this week for fleeing their jobs in a panic after hearing of an immigration sweep on the city's waterfront.
    Roy Jesus, operating manager at Ahead, said the group of employees left their jobs without explanation around 11 a.m. Monday.
    "People just started exiting the building without telling anyone," he said. "I had to terminate them for leaving their jobs."
    The sweep by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement early Monday morning at several fish processing plants sent waves of rumors and fear through the city's Latin American population.
    Ahead, a manufacturer in the New Bedford Business Park, is located nearly 10 miles away from the fish processing plants on the South Terminal waterfront. But a Guatemalan worker at Ahead said he and his co-workers heard that immigration agents were in the business park at AFC Cable, and so they fled. An AFC Cable official said he did not know anything about an immigration sweep.
    "There were rumors that immigration was going to sweep through the entire city and the industrial park," said Sabino, 34, a Guatemalan immigrant, speaking in his native Spanish. Sabino, not his real name, had worked at Ahead for almost six years.
    "I tried to convince them to stay, but they wouldn't listen. They said, 'Immigration is going to come get us,'" he said.
    Work stopped completely when the calls first came through, Sabino said. Then, 20 minutes later, rumors began anew that immigration agents were in the business park. "People got all excited, and that's what caused them to want to flee from the company," he said.
    The workers, mostly from Guatemala and El Salvador, had each provided the company with Social Security cards and green cards that said they were working in the U.S. legally. But they were worried their documentation would be exposed as fraudulent, Sabino said.
    Sabino, whose name has been changed in this report to protect him from ICE or his former employer, said that many of the employees' documents were false.
    Mr. Jesus said the company had two forms of identification on each employee: a U.S. Social Security card and a green card, or work permit from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
    "Most of them had been here for awhile," said Mr. Jesus. "They were very good workers, very good people. The whole thing has kind of caught us a little bit in shock."
    Sabino and his co-workers did a variety of jobs at Ahead, including running embroidering machines, completing finishing work on hats once they passed through the embroidering machines, and packing products to be shipped.
    Sabino said he was paid $8.75 per hour, and that although he was offered health insurance by Ahead, he declined it. Sabino has a wife and young children living in New Bedford.
    Mr. Jesus said that according to company policy, employees can be terminated for leaving their jobs without permission. Other reasons for termination would be insubordination, or chronic absenteeism, he said. Neither of those were an issue with the workers, he said.
    The next day, Tuesday, Sabino and his fellow employees all came to work. He said they were told not to punch in, and to gather in the company cafeteria.
    Mr. Jesus told them that he was really sorry, that they were all good workers, and that the company really did not want to let them go, Sabino said. But the decision was made, he told them, and there was nothing else he could do.
    The workers will be able to pick up their paychecks for the work they already did, and then, they will have to look for new jobs.
    "You just can't have that," Mr. Jesus said of the mass employee exodus. "Once I allowed that, it would set a precedent."
    Mr. Jesus said he is not completely sure why the employees left en masse. Did they receive calls from the waterfront about the immigration sweep, and then panic?
    "I can surmise that, I really don't know that for sure," he said. "That's probably the reason. It seems that way. They talked amongst themselves, and they left. That's what happened."
    He said the company is currently in a busy season, and is using second- and third-shift employees on overtime to fill the gap left by the fired workers.
    "It's put a pretty good hurt on us," he said. "We're trying to replace them."
    Ahead, formerly Ahead Headgear, is a custom embroiderer of golf caps, visors, shirts and other golf apparel items. Those items, mostly manufactured in off-shore factories, are then shipped to Ahead's facility located on the Dartmouth side of the New Bedford Business Park. Employees use specialized machines to embroider custom designs on the items for individual golf course pro shops and golf events. The caps and visors are then sold at golf pro shops and golf tournaments around the country.
    Sabino said the whole experience has left him discouraged.
    "The way we were treated, it was like we were worth nothing," he said. "The 30 people who were fired made a lot of money for the company, they helped move the company forward. We were really grateful to the employers that we got to work there..."
    At that point, Sabino broke down and cried. After he composed himself, he said, "I have family. We take such risks to find work. It's really painful."
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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