Raid on human smuggling ring nets 23 arrests

A human smuggling ring that brought undocumented workers from China to work in Manhattan restaurants - while stashing the immigrants in group homes in places like Commack and Ronkonkoma - has been broken up by federal agents, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The agency's raids on Tuesday and Wednesday resulted in 23 people arrested on charges they smuggled 70 people from China to work in Chinatown restaurants, paid them paltry wages and forced them to live in group homes on Long Island and elsewhere that had "cramped and unsanitary conditions," said Special Agent Jim Hayes.

"This is the single largest criminal investigation into employers believed to be hiring unauthorized workers in New York in this agency's history," Hayes said. The number of arrests in the single raid is more than the number of people arrested by ICE for unauthorized employment in all of the past year, he said.

The ring was made up of smugglers, employment agencies and money remittance businesses that brought in the largely male group of workers, who paid $75,000 a piece to come to New York, and sent them to restaurant owners for jobs, Hayes said.

The restaurant owners specifically asked the ring for undocumented immigrants because they could pay them lower wages, and monitor their lives in New York, Hayes said.

"The restaurants would call up and say, 'here's what I need,' " Hayes said. "They were paying them lower than minimum wage, and controlling their lives essentially."

Eighteen of the 23 arrested were accused of "harboring illegal aliens for the purpose of commercial advantage or financial gain," including operating Chinatown employment agencies that placed the immigrants in restaurant jobs, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Three other people charged in the smuggling ring remained at large Thursday, according to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Some of the 70 workers are witnesses in the case, while immigration authorities determine whether the group will be sent home, Hayes said.

The defendants face charges ranging from harboring and transporting undocumented immigrants, unauthorized employment, and money laundering. The sentences for each charge range from 3 to 20 years in prison, he said.