Wal - Mart Arrests Are a Warning, Feds Say

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Wal-Mart-Illegal-Workers.html

November 19, 2005
Wal - Mart Arrests Are a Warning, Feds Say
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:53 p.m. ET

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) -- Federal officials say the arrest
of 125 workers at a construction site for a new
Wal-Mart distribution center should serve as a warning
to employers who hire illegal immigrants.

All 125 workers arrested in the raid will be deported,
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials said
Friday. The workers from Mexico and Central America
were detained Thursday at the site outside Pottsville,
about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

''Employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, and
those who utilize false documents to gain employment,
face significant criminal and administrative
charges,'' said John Kelleghan, acting special
agent-in-charge for the immigration agency in
Pennsylvania.

Some of the 125 workers, who are from Mexico, Costa
Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, used fake
documents to obtain employment with subcontractors,
officials said. The arrests came after search warrants
were executed for six companies at the site.

The Pennsylvania job site remains shut down, Wal-Mart
spokesman Marty Heires said Friday. He did not know
when construction would resume.

Agents obtained the search warrants after learning
that 10 workers employed by Destin Drywall & Paint
were using Social Security numbers that did not match
their names.

Another three used Social Security numbers that were
never issued by the government, according to an
affidavit unsealed Friday at U.S. District Court in
Scranton.

Houston-based Destin has worked on Wal-Mart projects
around the country, said office manager Cindy Wyman.
She said the company verifies that employees are
permitted to work in the United States.

''As far as I know, their Social Security numbers are
good,'' Wyman said of the Pennsylvania workers.

A Wal-Mart spokesman has said the detained workers
were not employed by Wal-Mart but by the
subcontractors. Wal-Mart's contracts with the
companies require that they follow local, state and
federal employment laws, the company said.

Last month, Wal-Mart shut down work on seven stores
under construction in North Dakota to check for
illegal aliens after two illegal immigrants working on
Wal-Mart projects in Bismarck were charged with
molesting two 13-year-old girls. Charges against one
of the suspects were dropped after authorities found
out he was a juvenile.

In 2003, a raid of 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states led
to the arrests of 245 illegal workers. An affidavit
claimed a pair of senior Wal-Mart executives knew
cleaning contractors were hiring illegal immigrants.
The retailer agreed to pay $11 million in March to
settle the case but denied senior executives knew of
the hirings.
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Wal-Mart Arrests Are a Warning, Feds Say
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... center should serve as a warning to employers ... The arrests came after search warrants were executed for six ... based Destin has worked on Wal-Mart projects around ...
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