Thread: VA: Immigration Agency Arrests 34 Workers At Construction Fi

Immigration Agency Arrests 34 Workers At Construction Firm

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 25, 2008; B05



Federal immigration authorities converged on a Prince William County construction company just before sunrise yesterday, arresting 34 Latin American nationals for being in the country illegally.

Workplace raids are rare in the Washington area, and the roundup at CMC Concrete Construction in the Manassas area appears to be the largest in the region in nearly two years, according to a review of news releases on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site.

The workers -- who come from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador -- are being charged administratively and are in ICE custody undergoing deportation proceedings, said Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for the customs agency.

News of the arrests spread quickly through an immigrant community already on edge after a county law took effect this month allowing Prince William police to check the immigration status of people stopped for other infractions.

Fobbs said the agency had executed two search warrants in connection with the operation. Because those warrants were under seal, Fobbs said, she could not discuss how or why the company had drawn federal attention, nor confirm that CMC Concrete Construction was the agency's target.

James Rybicki, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said no employers had been charged. But he added, "Obviously, we'll be reviewing the case for possible criminal charges."

Public records identify Felisberto J. Magalhaes as the president of CMC and Maria Brandao Magalhaes as its secretary and treasurer. A relative of the owners who entered the company's administrative suite in a Manassas office complex yesterday afternoon to meet with several ICE agents declined to comment.

A few miles away, at a large lot where CMC workers come to pick up equipment before heading out to job sites each day, about a dozen remaining workers stood in groups discussing the morning's events.

A 32-year-old Mexican man, who asked that his name not be published for fear of retaliation from his bosses or the government, said he and three others had driven off the lot in one of the company's pickup trucks when they noticed a silver van behind them flashing police lights.

"We thought maybe we had run a light or there was something wrong with the plates -- we figured at worst we were going to get a traffic ticket," he said.

Instead, the man said, an armed immigration agent leaned in the window and demanded identification.

"Everyone grew very quiet. We were horribly sad, but more than anything, resigned," the man said.

He said agents were able to retrieve records demonstrating that CMC had successfully sponsored him for legal permanent residency years ago. But he said two colleagues in the truck had no such proof to offer and were handcuffed, along with five workers riding in a pickup behind them.

Minutes after the roadside detentions, other workers said, immigration agency vehicles entered the lot and more than a dozen agents fanned out in pursuit of several fleeing workers.

When the Mexican worker finally reached the lot, he learned that his younger brother was among those taken away.

"You feel so impotent, to see someone you know, who is just trying to work, go through this and to not be able to help him," he said.

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I love to see this happen in Las Vegas, but it great to see it anywhere.

And you notice the SOB Story at the end of the article .. Just came here to work what they don't say is we came to take jobs from the American people..

Man is fined for hiring illegals


By AMANDA STEWART, Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger
Published: April 24, 2008

A Manassas man pleaded guilty in federal court this week to hiring illegal immigrants who were not authorized to work in the U.S.


Felisberto Magalhaes, 55, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to a misdemeanor charge of a pattern or practice of hiring illegal immigrants.


U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson sentenced him to one year of unsupervised probation. He also ordered Magalhaes to pay $122,000, the amount prosecutors believe he earned by hiring illegal immigrants.


The maximum punishment for the misdemeanor charge is six months in prison, a fine of $3,000 per illegal immi-grant hired and one year of supervised probation, according to federal law.


Magalhaes was associated with CMC Concrete and Stonewall Concrete, both Manassas-based businesses, according to documents on file in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.


On March 24, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials conducted a raid at CMC Concrete, at 8577 Sudley Road, and took into custody 34 illegal immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador, federal officials said at the time.



Federal officials believe that Magalhaes hired hundreds of illegal immigrants over a two-year period beginning in early 2006.


According to the court documents Magalhaes knew that many of the people he hired, some of whom presented false Social Security cards and green cards, were not legally allowed to work in the United States.


Since 2006, Magalhaes hired 257 illegal immigrants who used false Social Security numbers. More than 100 of the false Social Security numbers were issued to no one and 150 were issued to people other than the employees who used them.


The 34 construction workers detained in the March raid are undergoing deportation proceedings, federal officials said at the time.

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