Thread: VA-Feds say workers forged documents

Feds say workers forged documents
Immigration agents raid Woodfin plant
Josh Boatwright and John Boyle • jboatwright@citizen-times.com • updated August 12, 2008 11:43 am

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WOODFIN – Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement this morning raided a Woodfin manufacturing plant, arresting 57 people on charges related to immigration violations.


The workers used fraudulent documents to get jobs at Mills Manufacturing Corp., a government defense contractor that makes parachutes, special agent Del Richburg said. He called the raid the largest ever in Western North Carolina.

The company is not the target of the investigation and has been cooperative, the agency said. Company officials did not know the workers were illegal, Richburg said.

"The company is not a suspect; they've been cooperative," Richburg said.

The workers apprehended were being bused to the Henderson County Detention Center. Some who have health or family-related issues will be taken back to the plant in Woodfin and released under order to appear later in an immigration court, he said

Others could be moved to Charlotte or Georgia, before their court appearance, he said.

The majority of the workers arrested are from Mexico. Some also are from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Ecuador, said ICE spokesman Ivan Ortiz-Delgado.

Homeland security concerns, with Mills Manufacturing being a defense contractor, was a driving factor in the raid, he said.

Ortiz-Delgado said the agency targets employers that provide services crucial to national security and infrastructure like airports, power plants and defense contractors.

“That doesn’t mean that we only investigate those employers, but we give priority to those because they are critical infrastructure,â€

[quote]“To cart them away in a bus is an injustice and to put it under the façade of homeland security is a lie,â€

The company is not the target of the investigation and has been cooperative, the agency said. Company officials did not know the workers were illegal, Richburg said.

"The company is not a suspect; they've been cooperative," Richburg said.

You know...when do companies become "suspects?" Is it enough to simply cooperate with authorities when caught and claim, "We didn't know." Should that be enough to relieve them of any liability from hiring illegal invaders with fradulent documents!

E-Verify should be made absolutely mandatory for any company or business which has been raided and was found to be employing illegal invaders. I'm tired of the excuse, "we didn't know."

You "didn't want to know" is more likely the correct answer. It's not as if these companies had one or two illegal invaders on their payroll! They had many, sometimes hundreds of illegals!

I just have a hard time buying the excuse "we didn't know!"

I wonder where ICE is getting the manpower for all these new raids? There have been a half dozen high profile raids over the past month. Why haven't we had a half dozen raids every month for the past 7 years? Has ICE hired new employees, or were they just sitting around playing cards for the past 6 years?

[quote]Tim Nolan, a nurse practitioner who said he works among Asheville’s Latino community, arrived at the factory site during the raid and questioned ICE agents about targeting workers there.

He said the workers are hard-working, tax-paying people who are merely trying to take care of their families.

“To cart them away in a bus is an injustice and to put it under the façade of homeland security is a lie,â€

Bowman: Thank you and others for contributing.

ICE NEEDS TO BE DOING DAILY RAIDS; AND THE ADMIN. SUPPORT AND/OR MILITARY PER STATE NEED TO GET INVOLVED.

WHAT DO WE PAY THESE PEOPLE TO DO????????

SIT ON BUTTS AND WAIT TO GO TO IRAQ/ OR WAR?

WE ARE IN A WAR AGAINST EMPLOYERS AND ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS, HERE IN AMERICA.

RELATED POST:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-127907-kerry.html+john

[quote="vortex"][quote]“To cart them away in a bus is an injustice and to put it under the façade of homeland security is a lie,â€