TUCSON - In an operation that authorities say marks a new chapter in workplace enforcement, federal immigration officials raided the offices of a Sierra Vista drywall company on Friday, arresting the firm's president and six others for conspiring to hire illegal workers.
 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents cart records from Sun Drywall and Stucco Inc. in Sierra Vista, Ariz., on Friday, March 9, 2007. The business was raided as part of a 16-month federal investigation into the hiring of illegal immigrants. The president of the business and five other employees were charged in the case. |
"Unfortunately, for many employers, the fines imposed for illegal hiring practices have become just another cost of doing business," said Alonzo Pena, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona.
"The prospect of serving a prison sentence carries sharper teeth, and we hope that the message is being delivered."
Those arrested included Sun's president, Ivan Hardt, 44, and its human resource manager, Carol Hill, 42. A total of eight employees at the company were named in the same indictment, and all but one was in custody by Friday afternoon.
In addition to the raid at the company's Cooper Road headquarters, Border Patrol and ICE agents, supported by Sierra Vista police and Cochise County Sheriff's deputies, executed search warrants at eight Sun job sites around Sierra Vista, arresting a total of 13 people.
Seven of the arrested individuals were undocumented Mexican workers employed by Sun. Another undocumented laborer, also from Mexico, was detained after he was found working for an unidentified framing company.
Pena said the eight Mexicans would be interviewed by ICE officers and repatriated to Mexico.
Some of the undocumented workers lived in the area, while others lived in Mexico and had tourist visas that they used to enter the United States, Pena added. Tourist visas do not allow a foreigner to work in the country.
In addition to the Mexicans, five U.S. citizens were arrested during the sweep - three for drug possession and two on outstanding warrants.
According to the indictment filed in the case, Sun was warned as early as December 2005 to stop hiring illegal workers. Instead, investigators allege that company managers conspired to obtain false paperwork for their undocumented employees.
Furthermore, the indictment alleges that Sun managers were "constantly on the lookout for undercover or unmarked ICE vehicles," and that Hardt and a foreman used two-way radios to communicate about the movements of ICE agents.
Despite the efforts, Pena said, immigration officials were still able to detain 32 illegal Sun employees between the 2005 warning and Friday's sweep.
"We have got a company that was knowingly hiring illegal aliens after they had been given adequate opportunity to adjust their hiring practices," he said.
But Joel Dunn, a manager at Sun who was not charged in the indictment, said the company had done nothing wrong.
"Everybody that comes here has the proper documents," he said. "I just feel that they've harassed us for years."
As federal officials carted boxes of records out of Sun's offices Friday morning, Spanish-speaking laborers gathered outside to collect their paychecks. Eddie Dunn, Joel Dunn's father and Sun's former owner, said the company had long relied on Mexican immigrants.
"You have to have these people because the Caucasian people won't do the work," Eddie Dunn said.
But according to Pena, officials are investigating the possibility that Sun exploited its immigrant employees by forcing them to work long hours or by paying them on a piece-work basis.
On the job sites
Luciano Ruiz, a 26-year-old Sierra Vistan, was working to lay tile at a new home in the Chaparral Village development when a group of about 10 Border Patrol and ICE officers arrived at around 8 a.m.
Ruiz said the officers gathered all of the 15 or 20 workers at the site - both white and Hispanic - and asked for ID. The officers said they were looking for people affiliated with a local drywall company, but took down the names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth of all the laborers.
The officers were cordial and made no arrests at the site, Ruiz said.
Despite the unexpected interruption of his work, Ruiz was supportive of the effort.
"They were doing their job, and it seemed like they were doing it well," he said. "We U.S. citizens are all trying to make a living, and if illegal workers aren't supposed to be here, they shouldn't be here."
Across town at Coronado Crossing, Manuel, an electrician from Douglas who declined to give his last name, was installing wiring at a new home when three Border Patrol agents, three ICE officers and a man in civilian clothing pulled up in unmarked vehicles.
The officers were armed and accompanied by dogs, Manuel said, and one Border Patrol agent wore a mask. A helicopter circled overhead.
Manuel and a companion were asked to show ID, and when they checked out, the officers left.
Unlike Ruiz, Manuel was left feeling uneasy after the episode.
He thought the response had been excessive.
"Why are they bothering people just because they're working?" he asked. "They should be out looking for people who are doing bad things. It doesn't make much sense."
Pena said the intensity of the operation was justified.
"You have no idea what you're going to encounter," he said. "You have a work site where you have air guns, all kinds of tools, razors; we just don't want anybody to get hurt."
And despite the relatively low number of arrests for an operation that involved more than 200 federal officers, Pena said the effort was a success.
"The focus was on the employers," he said. "That's who we went after and that's who we have in custody."
Al Garza, a Huachuca City resident and the national executive director of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, was pleased to hear about the operation, especially since it involved criminal charges against an employer.
"This is exactly what (the MCDC) has been talking about," he said. "The problem is not just about illegal immigrants; it's also about the hiring of illegal immigrants."
In Washington, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords applauded the raids in Sierra Vista while reiterating her call for comprehensive immigration reform.
"The problem of immigration includes many troubling aspects," Giffords said. "President Bush and Congress must move quickly to set aside partisan politics so we can focus our energies on enacting tough, practical and effective immigration reform legislation."
A call seeking comment left at Hardt's home was not returned by press time on Friday.
Friday's action came three days after federal agents raided a leather factory in Massachusetts and detained more than 300 illegal workers, many of them women. Those arrests drew criticism over the children left behind at schools and day-care centers after parents were detained. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick called it a "humanitarian crisis."
Pena said Friday's sweep was a different type of action, not only because the number of arrests were fewer, but also because the detained workers were all men.
Even so, he said ICE was sensitive to the concerns of family members, and so it set up a hotline at (520) 266-3975 for relatives.
The Mexican Consul in Douglas, Oscar de la Torre, said his office was in the process of interviewing the eight detained Mexican laborers to ensure that their civil and judicial rights had not been violated during the sweep.
In addition to the arrests in Sierra Vista, a home in Tucson was raided Friday and at least one person was arrested on state charges for allegedly supplying Sun's illegal workers with counterfeit documents.
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