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Military, feds coordinated base roundup
November 04,2005
BY CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF
The apprehension of 21 illegal immigrants at Camp Lejeune on Wednesday was the result of a coordinated effort between the military and federal immigration enforcers, a base spokesman said Thursday.

Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., military police and officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement performed preplanned security checks at three base gates, said 1st Lt. Clark Carpenter, a Camp Lejeune spokesman.

"We had a pre-planned 100 percent ID check for any contractors entering the Midway Park, Tarawa Terrace 1 and Tarawa Terrace 2 gates," Carpenter said. "Those checks were conducted just inside the gates, past the sentries."

The "combined efforts" of 11 ICE agents and eight military police officers led to the apprehension of the workers, Carpenter said.

Sue Brown, a spokeswoman for ICE in Atlanta, said the workers came from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

"The majority of them had counterfeit immigration documents on the person at the time of the arrest," she said.

Brown said the workers were taken into custody and will be processed into the system. Illegal aliens facing that situation sometimes ask to be voluntarily deported while others will ask for a hearing, she said.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the workers were employed by local construction companies, but neither the base nor ICE would confirm who had hired the workers because the investigation is ongoing.

A number of undocumented workers have been found on North Carolina military bases this year. Over the summer, officials arrested 74 undocumented workers at Camp Lejeune and 49 at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro.

The first group of workers that were detained at Camp Lejeune were registered by base officials and then released off of base property. While some were detained already on base grounds, most were picked up during gate security checks.