Thread: Navy contract workers found to be illegal immigrants

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metr ... traid.html


Navy contract workers found to be illegal immigrants


By Elliot Spagat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
4:05 p.m. April 14, 2005

SAN DIEGO – More than half of a small military contractor's 167 employees are illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday. Eighteen men were arrested, all but one of them Mexican.

An audit of hiring records showed 86 employees of Naval Coating Inc. don't have permission to work in the United States, the department said. The company paints ships at Naval Station San Diego. Most of its employees have security badges to enter the base that is home to more than 50 ships.

Agents confiscated eight fake Social Security cards and six phony alien registration cards during pre-dawn raids at the men's homes.

The ink on some of the confiscated cards was smudged and difficult to read, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division.

Some had misspellings. One phony Social Security card read: "Contac your local Social Security office for any other matter regar"

The sting is part of a 17-month-old probe in San Diego and Imperial counties to clamp down on immigration violations at military bases, airports and other sensitive workplaces. Authorities have examined employment records at more than 500 companies and made more than 150 arrests.

Naval Coating is striking because so many of its workers were found to be in the country illegally. The San Diego company has not been fined or charged with any crimes, but Homeland Security said it continues to investigate.

"It raises some red flags," Mack said. "How did so many get by without being detected in the hiring procedures?"

A woman who answered the telephone at Naval Coating said the company had no comment. She declined to give her name or make anyone else available.

Homeland Security began reviewing the company's hiring records about four weeks ago, Mack said. Employers are required to ask for identification and proof of the right to work, but they do not have to verify the credentials with the government.

An alien registration card – or "green card" – is enough proof to get a job. A Social Security card also works if the employee has a government-issued identification card, such as a driver's license.

Capt. Jacquie Yost, a Navy spokeswoman, said contractors are required to follow certain steps to verify employment. She said authorities were investigating whether Naval Coatings adhered to them.

The 17 Mexicans and one Guatemalan arrested will be placed in deportation proceedings or voluntarily return to their countries, Homeland Security said. Two were previously deported, including one who was convicted for smuggling drugs.

Doesn't surprise me at all;if you look close enough sub-contractors for many cities and counties throughout Ca. hire almost exclusively the same type of illegal workers.So much for the "they only do the jobs Americans won't do" theory.