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Undocumented Workers Arrested

Monday, June 26, 2006

Morgan Hill - Although official documents are still sealed in the ongoing investigation of a Morgan Hill company, an immigration spokeswoman said12 undocumented workers were arrested when several law enforcement agencies raided the business last week.

Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) Director of Media Services Virginia Kice Kice did not release information about the arrests after the June 13 raid of Sun Valley Technical Repair, because they were "tangential to the reason we were there." She described the arrests as administrative rather than criminal.

The arrest of the workers, who were from Mexico and Central America, does not mean the company, located a 15555 Concord Circle, automatically faces illegal hiring charges.

"To establish any kind of criminal charge, the company must have knowingly hired individuals not authorized to work here," Kice said.

Kice said news about the arrests was leaked to a Spanish-language television station by a relative of one of the workers who was arrested. She said she did not mention the arrests initially because the focus of the probe was not on undocumented workers.

"Now it is something we are looking at as a part of the ongoing probe," she added.

The raid began early with agents from the FBI, ICE, Department of Defense, U.S. Postal Service, California Department of Motor Vehicles, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and Morgan Hill Police Department sealing off the two-story office building and warehouse and even closing Community Park for a short period of time. Agents allowed no one on the property on Concord Circle for several days.

Calls to Sun Valley Technical Repair were not answered.