Immigration arrests 9 bosses along with 1,000 workers
Via CNN.com
Strategy to focus more on companies that employ illegal workers
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Federal immigration
authorities arrested nine people linked to the firm IFCO Systems and
rounded up more than 1,000 illegal immigrants in multistate raids,
federal law enforcement officials said.
Among those arrested
and charged in connection with the employment of immigrants are seven
current and former managers and two lower-level employees of the
company, said U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby.
The operation came
as Bush administration officials and a federal prosecutor plan a new
strategy aimed at companies that employ illegal immigrants. IFCO is an
industry leader in the manufacture of wooden pallets, crates and
containers. The criminal complaint involving IFCO charges the seven
managers with conspiracy to transport, harbor, and employ illegal
immigrants for private gain.
Federal
authorities checked a sample of 5,800 IFCO employee records last year
and found that 53 percent had faulty Social Security numbers, an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said.
“That
is, they were using Social Security numbers of people that were dead,
of children or just different individuals that did not work at IFCO,”
ICE chief Julie Myers told CNN.
The U.S. Immigration Law Blog by Ashwin Sharma 