Thread: SC-Yearlong investigation leads to 15 arrests on immigration

Yearlong investigation leads to 15 arrests on immigration charges
By RENEE DUDLEY
rdudley@islandpacket.com

Published Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Fourteen employees and the owner of the Jade Garden restaurants in Beaufort and Bluffton were arrested Wednesday for being in the U.S. illegally, according to a news release from the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.

The 15 people, all adults, come from various countries. Six are Chinese men, four are Chinese women, four are Mexican women and one is a Guatemalan man, according to regional ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez. They remain in custody, Gonzalez said. She declined to release their names.

The arrests follow a yearlong investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the Sheriff's Office ICE Task Force into allegations that illegal immigrants had been hired at the restaurants, the release said.

Officials executed search warrants at Jade Garden's Beaufort restaurant on Boundary Street, at the Bluffton restaurant on Fording Island Road, at three homes in Bluffton and at two homes in Beaufort, according to Gonzalez.

The owner of the restaurant is an ICE fugitive who already had been ordered deported, Gonzalez said. The circumstances of that order could not be determined Wednesday.

After interviewing the suspects, ICE agents granted none of them supervised humanitarian release, she said. Such a release can be granted when suspects have significant medical needs or dependent children, she said.

The criminal investigation into the case is ongoing, and the U.S. Attorney's Office will determine whether federal charges will be pursued, according to the release.


http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/03/24/ ... ds-to.html

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http://www.alipac.us/article-5055--0-0.html

I can't think of one single restaurant in NYC that doesn't employ IAs.