US crackdown set over hiring of immigrants

The apprehension on Apr. 19 of more than 1,100 illegal immigrants employed by a pallet supply company based in Houston, TX, as well as the arrest of seven of its managers, represented the start of a more aggressive federal crackdown on employers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Apr. 20. Describing the hiring of millions of illegal workers, in some cases, as a form of organized crime, Chertoff said the government would try to combat the practice with techniques similar to those used to shut down the mob. "We target those organizations, we use intelligence to define the scope of the organization, and then we use all of the tools we have–whether it's criminal enforcement or the immigration laws–to make sure we come down as hard as possible and break the back of those organizations," Chertoff said at a news conference. In the action on Apr. 19, federal officials detained 1,187 illegal immigrants working in 26 states for IFCO Systems North America, a subsidiary of a company based in the Netherlands that supplies plastic containers and wood pallets used to ship a variety of goods, from fruit to computers. Of the 1,187 detained workers, 275 have already been deported to Mexico. The rest are being processed for deportation, although many may be released on bond. No senior executives at the company were arrested, but officials filed criminal charges against seven current or former lower-level managers and a foreman. The supervisors, from New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Texas, were accused of conspiring to transport, harbor and induce illegal immigrants to come to the United States, charges that carry maximum sentences of up to 10 years in jail. The department is adding 17 special teams of investigators, for a total of 52, to search for some of the 590,000 immigrants in the country who have ignored orders to leave.