ONE DAY "stop work" order TO GRAY CONSTRUCTION after arrest of 7 ILLEGALS http://bit.ly/9S0nj

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Chemung: CVS project halted

Officials issue day-long "stop work" order after arrest of seven undocumented immigrants
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Saturday, November 14, 2009 9:08 AM EST
CHEMUNG — The feverish pace of construction at the 751,000 square-foot CVS distribution facility in the Town of Chemung came to a screeching halt on Friday following the arrest of seven Mexican nationals on illegal immigration charges.

As a result of the arrests, which took place Thursday evening, county and local officials issued a day-long stop work order to Gray Construction, the Kentucky-based general contractor, that left the usually bustling site silent for the duration of the day on Friday.

Following talks with Grey Construction Friday afternoon, officials agreed to rescind the stop work order and allow all of the approximately 160 construction workers to return Saturday morning.

At a press conference held Friday morning, Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli and Sheriff Christopher Moss stated that Thursday’s arrests were the culmination of three months of investigations into the possibility of undocumented employees at the work site, following a series of tips they began receiving in August.

After a number of checks over the past few weeks turned up nothing, they said, a lead followed by the Chemung County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday finally paid off.

“At approximately 4:45 p.m. (Thursday), we initiated two traffic stops on state Route 17 in the Town of Chemung after the individuals had left the CVS worksite,â€