Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

11/27/01  News Report -- St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press

Agents arrested 19 illegal workers at Wood Design Inc. in Forest Lake on Monday morning, removing many of the company's employees in the early hours of the workweek.

Many of those arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- 15 men, three women and one teen-age boy -- will return to their home countries of Mexico and El Salvador as early as Wednesday, INS officials predicted.

Officials declined to say how long they had investigated Wood Design or what prompted their inquiry. They did say 11 illegal workers from the same company were arrested and deported in 1995, although the company was not fined or charged.

Monday's action is an uncommon move for the Immigration and Natural Service. The agency's policies have shifted in recent years to finding undocumented people engaged in criminal activities and away from job-site arrests. The last significant arrest at a business took place in Winona a couple of years ago, said Curtis Aljets, district director for the INS office in Bloomington.

"We're targeting businesses if we feel they have done something unlawful," Aljets said. A co-owner and other employees at Wood Design declined to comment.

Undocumented workers are generally charged with administrative, not criminal, offenses, INS officials said. The detainees were interviewed at the Bloomington office on Monday. Officials expected to transfer them to local jails by Monday evening, said Tim Counts, public affairs specialist for the INS.

The undocumented workers will be "processed for removal," Counts said, but they do have a number of options including requesting a hearing and seeking asylum. A separate investigation of the employer is also under way.

Sixteen INS agents, four Forest Lake police officers and one representative from the state Department of Revenue descended on the business about 8 a.m. Monday. The INS agents had a warrant to search for and detain people.

It was described as a quiet and orderly arrest.

A manager for the company was cooperative and helped move employees, said Investigator Kirby Siewert with the Forest Lake police.

Wood Design, whose products include wood plaques, had a lot of noisy machinery running when INS officials entered the building. Authorities used a megaphone to get employees' attention and one by one, machines fell silent as people moved away from them to have their papers checked, Siewert said.

As often happens, many undocumented workers seemed resigned to their arrest, said Chuck Midby, a supervisory special agent with the INS. Mexico and El Salvador "are pretty good about taking their people back," he said. "The majority of the people arrested today ... will probably be back in Mexico on Wednesday."