Thread: WA: Immigration raid nets 32 Arlington workers

Published: Thursday, June 26, 2008

Immigration raid nets 32 Arlington workers

By Diana Hefley
Herald Writer

ARLINGTON – Federal immigration agents raided an Arlington aerospace company and arrested nearly three dozen people Thursday morning after a year-long investigation into allegations the business used illegal workers.

A federal warrant of inspection was served this morning at Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies, said Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle. The company is a leading supplier of frame and interior parts for commercial and military aircraft, including parts for the Boeing Co.

At this time there isn’t any evidence AMT officials were aware the arrested workers used false documents to gain employment, Dankers said.

Agents arrested 16 men and 16 women. The majority are believed to be from Mexico, officials said.

The workers are expected to be deported. They are being interviewed, fingerprinted and photographed. As a result of the interviews four women were released on humanitarian grounds, pending further proceedings. The remaining workers were being held at a federal detention center in Tacoma.

The arrests are part of work site enforcement that targets critical infrastructure and security sensitive sites, Dankers said. AMT is registered with the U.S. Department of State’s Director of Defense, which oversees the export and import of products used for national defense.

Immigration agents audited the company’s employment records and discovered discrepancies that indicated a small percentage of employees used fake documents to secure jobs, Dankers said.

www.heraldnet.com

Great!!! They just opened up jobs for legal US citizens, and probably cut into the profit margin (ie: bonuses for the slaveholders) of the various companies involved.
JBG

More than 30 employees arrested at Arlington business as illegal immigrants
KIRK BOXLEITNER, Reporter
kboxleitner@arlingtontimes.com
Published: June 26, 2008 2:00 PM
Updated: June 26, 2008 3:56 PM


ARLINGTON — Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., saw 32 of its employees arrested by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement the morning of June 26.

According to Lorie Dankers, a public affairs specialist with the Department of Homeland Security, agents served AMT with a federal civil search warrant, that authorized them to enter and inspect the premises, to locate workers who had committed administrative immigration violations.


The government's side

"This is part of an ongoing investigation that started with a tip from the public," said Dankers, who deemed AMT "critical infrastructure." The June 26 operation was part of ICE’s work-site enforcement effort, focusing on critical infrastructure and security-sensitive sites.

AMT is a leading supplier of frame and interior parts for commercial and military aircraft, that provides many of the parts used in some of aviation’s most popular airplanes, including the Boeing 737 and 777. The company is registered with the State Department’s Director of Defense Trade Controls, which oversees the export and import of certain products that can be used for national defense purposes.

The group of unauthorized workers was evenly divided in numbers of men and women, with 16 each, and included foreign nationals from two countries, with 30 from Mexico and two from El Salvador.

All those arrested at AMT June 26 will be interviewed, fingerprinted and photographed by ICE agents and processed for removal from the United States. Information obtained during the interviews will assist the ICE in making decisions about whether to detain an individual or permit a conditional humanitarian release.

As a result of these interviews, four of the illegal workers, all female, have already been released initially on humanitarian grounds, pending future immigration proceedings. The 28 workers remaining in ICE custody will be held at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

The June 26 enforcement action came after ICE agents audited the employment records of AMT. The audit revealed discrepancies, leading agents to believe that a small percentage of the company’s employees used counterfeit documents to secure their jobs. As of press time, there was no evidence AMT was aware the arrested workers had used false credentials to secure their employment.


The company's side

AMT President and CEO Jerry Goodwin sought to highlight the positives in what he admitted is a difficult situation.

"We had an eventful morning," Goodwin said. "The authorities pulled up, served us with their warrant very politely, and checked the documentation of every single one of our employees. They told us that our records were very well-kept. We thought all of our employees were legal, but obviously, [the authorities] have information that they're not."

Goodwin estimated that AMT employs nearly 400 workers in Arlington, and that the arrested employees came from a mix of all of its departments. In addition to hiring new employees, he predicted that a number of AMT's remaining employees would have to work overtime to compensate for the lost employees.

"It's too preliminary to say how long that will last," Goodwin said. "We'll be meeting this afternoon and tomorrow, to evaluate what this will mean to us."

Goodwin reported that ICE agents had not informed him of any specific points of oversight that his company had committed.

"It's an absolute," Goodwin said. "Either these employees are legal or they aren't. All we can do is check that they have the proper documentation. It's almost discrimination if we don't hire someone just because we don't know if their documentation is falsified."

Goodwin lamented the loss.

"It's a sad day in AMT's history," Goodwin said. "These people were good workers who were well-respected. They all looked like good people, but to work for us, they have to be legal U.S. citizens, and that's the bottom line."


For more information

ICE has set up a phone number that family members of the arrested workers can call with questions about their relatives' detention status and removal process, at 206-553-5657.

To help employers ensure that they are building a legal workforce through voluntary partnerships with the government, the Department of Homeland Security has announced an initiative called the ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers. IMAGE is designed to build cooperative relationships between government and businesses, to strengthen hiring practices, and to reduce unlawfully employing illegal aliens.

The initiative also seeks to accomplish greater industry compliance and corporate due diligence through enhanced federal training and education of employers. ICE strongly encourages employers to review the IMAGE program materials available at www.ICE.gov.

Arlington Times Reporter Kirk Boxleitner can be reached at kboxleitner@arlingtontimes.com or 360-435-5757.




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"ANGELLOVER7777"]

I'll delete it for you!! done it myself on slow days!!

Feds arrest 32 workers at Arlington's Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies
A federal search warrant executed Thursday at an aircraft-manufacturing plant in Arlington, part of a national effort to crack down on illegal immigrants, resulted in the arrest of 32 workers

By Seattle Times staff

A federal search warrant executed Thursday at an aircraft-manufacturing plant in Arlington, part of a national effort to crack down on illegal immigrants, resulted in the arrest of 32 workers.

The search warrant was executed at Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies, a leading supplier of airplane-frame and -interior parts used by Boeing and other companies in commercial and military planes, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) news release.

The undocumented workers were from Mexico and El Salvador, ICE officials said.

Four of those arrested were released on humanitarian grounds after being interviewed, but the others were in custody at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

The operation was part of an effort to enforce immigration laws at work sites where security-sensitive information is accessible.

ICE said the Arlington company has ties to a trade organization that oversees the export and import of certain products that could be connected with national defense.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

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Published: Friday, June 27, 2008

Immigration agents raid Arlington Boeing supplier

Authorities arrest 32 workers suspected of immigration violations.

By Diana Hefley, Herald Writer

ARLINGTON -- Federal immigration agents raided an Arlington aerospace company and arrested nearly three dozen people Thursday morning after a yearlong investigation into allegations the business employed illegal workers.

Immigration authorities served a federal warrant of inspection at Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies Inc., according to Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle.

The company is a leading supplier of frame and interior parts for commercial and military aircraft, including parts used in the Boeing Co.'s 737 and 777 jets.

Federal authorities on Thursday said they didn't have any evidence to indicate that AMT officials knew their workers used bogus documents to gain employment. The investigation is ongoing and the company is cooperating, Dankers said.

"We'll go where the evidence leads us," she said.

Nobody at AMT would comment about Thursday's raid and arrests when contacted by The Herald.

The agents arrested 32 workers for investigation of immigration violations. The majority of the workers are believed to be Mexican nationals without legal authority to be in the U.S., Dankers said. Two of the workers are thought to be from El Salvador.

The probe into AMT began months ago after Immigration received a tip that the business was using undocumented workers, Dankers said. Federal agents audited the company's employment records and discovered discrepancies indicating that a small percentage of employees used fake documents to secure jobs, Dankers said.

About 360 employees were at the shop when immigration agents showed up.

The arrested workers, 16 men and 16 women, are expected to be deported. As part of Thursday's raid, the workers were interviewed, fingerprinted and photographed. Four women were released on humanitarian grounds. Agents determined the women were either caring for children or had a medical problem. They will be allowed to remain free pending deportation proceedings, Dankers said.

The other 28 workers were being held at a federal detention center in Tacoma.

Immigration authorities across the country have launched dozens of enforcement operations at work sites, targeting businesses deemed critical to the country's infrastructure or considered to be sensitive to national security.

The Arlington company is registered with the U.S. Department of State's Director of Defense Trade Controls, Dankers said. The department oversees the export and import of products used for national defense.

Along with the thousands of arrests of suspected illegal immigrants, immigration officials have arrested business owners suspected of knowingly using illegal workers.

"(Thursday's) enforcement action is part of ICE's ongoing nationwide effort to shut down the employment magnet fueling illegal immigration," said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of Immigration in Seattle.

"Every job held by an illegal alien is a job taken from a U.S. citizen or legal resident of this area," Winchell said in a statement.

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
http://www.enterprisenewspapers.com/art ... /ETPZoneLT

"This is part of an ongoing investigation that started with a tip from the public," said Dankers,

Tips DO work.

REPORT, ENFORCE AND DEPORT!