Illegal workers nabbed

Raid on the nation's biggest pallet company lands 7 managers and 1,200 employees in jail as feds eye crackdown

BY TOM BRUNE | Newsday Washington Bureau

April 21, 2006

WASHINGTON - Amid congressional wrangling over immigration legislation, Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff announced yesterday the arrests of nearly 1,200 illegal workers and the filing of criminal charges against managers of the nation's biggest pallet company as he highlighted a crackdown on businesses.

With raids in 26 states and criminal charges against seven current and former managers, the action against IFCO Systems North America Inc., based in Houston, represents the "largest single work-site enforcement operation against a company," Chertoff said in a Washington news briefing.

It was the second week in a row that Chertoff has announced charges against "bad actors" among employers who knowingly and systematically hire undocumented workers.

"The fact of the matter is we are looking at organizations that promote the harboring and hiring of illegal, undocumented workers," he said in unveiling what he called a "new" strategy yesterday. "We're looking at them the same way we look at other criminal organizations."

Yet he acknowledged the strategy has been in the works for a year or so, resulting in last week's cases against a Baltimore sushi restaurant and an Ohio employment service, as well as last year's $11 million settlement with Wal-Mart.

"We're now starting to see the fruits of seeds that were harvested when we started talking about this strategy a year or so ago," Chertoff said.

His announcement also comes at a time when Congress is struggling with two different bills aiming to reform immigration - one focused on tightening enforcement, the other containing a guest worker program with a path to citizenship.

Chertoff's strategy stresses stricter enforcement, but it is unclear how that will affect the legislation in Congress, said Angela Kelly of the pro-immigrant National Immigration Forum.

A crackdown on businesses is just one small part of the strategy Chertoff outlined yesterday. It focuses mainly on finding and deporting aliens who overstay visas or stay when ordered to leave, and quicker removal of criminal aliens after they serve time.

On the business front, Chertoff said he has requested funds in 2007 to add 200 special agents to the current 325 for employer enforcement. And he said he wanted to make it easier for companies to comply with immigration checks. He promoted a system in which employers could easily check the legitimacy of Social Security cards.

Most business groups appeared generally to support Chertoff's approach.

Mitchell Pally of the Long Island Association, for example, said Chertoff's strategy backs his group's policy that companies should follow the law and hire documented workers.

"The most important thing here is that everyone be on a level playing field," Pally said.

Firms that use illegal workers and don't do background checks have an unfair advantage, especially in bidding for public contracts, said Michael Evans, vice president at a Manhattan security firm, U.S. Protection Agency. "They're paying a lot lower and they can make their services for a lot lower," Evans said, suggesting that a crackdown could help create a level playing field.

But John Roberston, owner of Sexy Salad in Hauppauge, said a widespread crackdown could crush many in the restaurant industry, especially independent establishments.

"There's not many in the restaurant industry out there who could survive paying a porter $10, $11, $12 an hour," he said, adding that he employs only documented workers.

Chertoff said he'll target only the worst offenders, like IFCO.

On Wednesday, agents arrested 1,187 IFCO workers as illegals and seven managers who were charged with conspiring to transport and harbor illegals for commercial advantage and private financial gain, a crime with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine for each alien.

In a statement, IFCO said, "We are cooperating fully with representatives from ICE and hope to have this matter resolved as soon as possible."

Staff writer Keiko Morris on Long Island contributed to this story.