June 21, 2007
ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (AP): U.S. immigration authorities have arrested 81 illegal immigrants from Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia and Ecuador at a manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania. The companyput the blame on a temporary-worker agency.
U.S. agents have carried out several similar raids in recent months as part of a national effort to crack down on illegal hiring.
All 81 workers arrested in the raid Tuesday at Iridium Industries Inc.'s Artube division have been placed in removal proceedings for eventual deportation, said Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Fobbs declined to say what led custom agents to raid the plant, which makes plastic squeeze tubes for lotions and other consumer products.
Iridium's plant manager, Wayne Migliaccio, said Wednesday the raid was focused on a temp agency that supplied workers to the plant, not on Iridium itself.
"(ICE) Special Agent Jason Rundell's first words to me were, 'You are not the target here. You are the victim,"' Migliaccio said in a statement e-mailed to the media. "Rundell said that the raid was aimed at one particular temporary employment agency which was operating in the area."
Neither Migliaccio nor government officials identified the temp agency.
Migliaccio said Iridium uses various temp agencies and that it is their responsibility to check workers' immigration status. He said the company had no reason to question the employees' status before the raid.
Last week, federal agents raided a food processing plant in Oregon and detained more than 165 workers on immigration, illegal document and identity theft charges. In December, more than 1,200 immigrant workers were arrested at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in six states. (**)
