Washington state firm upset by handling of immigration raid

After federal agents raided Yamato Engine Specialists Ltd. and detained 28 employees Tuesday, Feb. 24, company officials expressed dismay about how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers handled the matter. "They arrived in force," said Asiff Dhanani, a co-owner of the company at 2020 E. Bakerview Road. "They surrounded the whole perimeter." Most of the workers detained were taken off in handcuffs, Dhanani said, except for three women who apparently were processed and released because they had children in local schools or daycare centers. The 28 made up about one-third of the engine remanufacturing company's production force. "Some of these guys have been with us a long time," Dhanani said, adding that at least two of the workers detained Tuesday had been cleared by an earlier federal immigration audit that began in 2005 and was competed in 2006. The arrested workers included 25 men–22 Mexican nationals, one Salvadoran, one Guatemalan and one Honduran–and three women, all Mexican nationals, said ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers. She added that some of those arrested had phony documents, such as Social Security cards. The 25 men were taken to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, and all will be entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge to determine if they have any legal grounds to remain in the U.S., Dankers said. Shirin Dhanani Makalai, Yamato's administrative manager, said the company has done its best to comply with immigration law in its hiring practices. She provided a copy of a 2006 letter to her from ICE, over the signature of assistant special agent in charge Roy Hoffman, praising the company's compliance. The letter says, in part: "Yamato Engine Specialist Ltd. is in full compliance with the record keeping requirements of the law and is making a good faith effort to insure (sic) that all new positions are filled by American citizens and by aliens authorized to work in the United States. You and Yamato Engine Specialist Ltd. may be proud of the contribution which your diligence and resolve are making to the success of this program. Your efforts are a genuine investment in the economic well-being of our nation." Makalai said ICE removed several workers after the 2005-06 audit, but that enforcement action was carried out in a less disruptive way. Agents came to the plant, interviewed workers, and departed with those who were working illegally. "They said they would work with us because they didn't want to cause us undue hardship," Makalai said of the earlier enforcement. "It was very dignified and humanely done. We just didn't expect this." Dankers said there was nothing unusual about the Tuesday raid, which was authorized by search warrant after an investigation that began last spring. "Individuals can dispute whether they think that is the appropriate tactic or not, but it is something we are allowed to do under the law," Dankers said. Many of those detained admitted they were in the country illegally when questioned by federal officers Tuesday, Dankers added. Makalai said the range of wages for Yamato's production workers begins at $9 and can be as high as $25 to $30 for the most skilled. She and Dhanani said the loss of the workers left them scrambling to fill orders. "Because these are skilled jobs, there are only limited people that can do some of these jobs," Dhanani said. "You can't just get someone off the street and put someone in these positions." Makalai said Yamato gets the federally required I-9 documentation from every worker at the time of hiring, but she and other employers have a difficult time making sure that workers' documents are legitimate. "They forged them, they bought them, we don't know," Makalai said. "They (the federal agencies) do not have an information system. ... Then they come in and ambush you." But Sharon Rummery, spokeswoman at the regional office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in San Francisco, said employers could check employees' documents with relative ease by using the federal E-Verify system. Any employer can enroll in the free system, which then provides a quick online verification system that, among other things, attempts to match names with Social Security numbers. Makalai, Dhanani and other members of the family that launched Yamato are themselves immigrants who fled persecution in Uganda in the early 1970s. "We know about paperwork and following the law," Makalai said. "We know about living in fear. ... It's not something we like to see other people experience."