Authorities arrest 6 construction workers on mall site

by John O'Brien / The Post-Standard
Friday March 13, 2009, 4:57 PM

Federal agents have arrested in the last two weeks six illegal immigrants working at the Carousel Center mall expansion project in Syracuse.

Border Patrol agents took four Bolivians and an Argentinean into custody Feb. 26 in the mall's food court, according to agent A.J. Price.

Two days earlier, state troopers detained a 43-year-old Mexican at a Thruway exit in Van Buren for driving while talking on cell phone, state police Investigator James Hunt said. Border Patrol agents took him into custody.

All six were in the U.S. illegally and are being deported, according to authorities.

Some of the workers arrested in the mall were employed by Cleveland Construction Inc., which is installing interior drywall and studs in the mall expansion, according to Dan Wireman, the company's general counsel.

Cleveland Construction was subcontracted by the mall's owner, Destiny Holdings LLC, Wireman said.

Shortly before the arrests, Cleveland Construction heard that some of its workers might be illegal, Wireman said. The company told all its workers to bring their paperwork to the job site again, including papers showing they were legally in the country, along with two forms of identification, Wireman said.

"We started at ground zero and checked all of the paperwork," Wireman said. "A group of guys, maybe 10 or 15, refused to show up."

Cleveland Construction, which is headquartered in Mentor, Ohio, fired some workers whose paperwork looked suspicious, Wireman said. The arrests were made shortly after the company's audit, he said.

"We're very vigilant about making sure that workers are legal," Wireman said. "We have a pretty good control process in place, but you can't necessarily stop everything."

Joe Fecht, a mechanical contractor on the project, said he saw the Border Patrol agents arrest the workers in the food court. The workers had vests and helmets reading, "Cleveland Construction," he said.

The agents arrested the workers when they went to the bathroom near the food court, Fecht said.

Larry Barnes, a pipefitter on the project, said he's had problems at the site with workers who didn't speak English and seemed inexperienced. He works a lift that carries one-ton pipes through the air. The area underneath the pipes is marked off with red tape so no one will walk underneath, he said.

"These guys are walking right through it," Barnes said. When he asked Cleveland Construction's safety officer about it, the man said the workers don't understand English, Barnes said.

Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would not say whether his agency is investigating. Cleveland Construction officials have not been contacted by ICE investigators, Wireman said.

Destiny spokesman David Aitken did respond to requests for an interview.

His boss, Robert Congel, promised to use local labor when the project began two years ago, according to local union leaders.

"He wanted to do it all local," said Martin Dillon, a field organizer for Bricklayers Local 2. "That was when he needed union support" to get a 30-year tax deal.

The expansion project last week passed the one-million work hours milestone, said Brian Watson, project manager for Cianbro Corp., which is the construction manager.

Construction is expected to be finished by late spring, Watson said.

John O'Brien can be reached at jobrien@syracuse.com or 470-2187.

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