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http://www.ice.gov/graphics/news/newsreleases/articles/051130sandiego.htm

News Release

November 30, 2005

ICE ARRESTS 17 ILLEGAL WORKERS EMPLOYED BY MILITARY SUBCONTRACTOR THAT ALLEGEDLY IGNORED NO-HIRE WARNINGS

SAN DIEGO – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents today executed federal search warrants at two facilities owned by a Southern California military subcontractor that has come under scrutiny twice in the last six years for hiring unauthorized workers.

During the enforcement actions targeting facilities operated by the Golden State Fencing Company in Oceanside and Riverside, ICE agents arrested 17 unauthorized workers, a number of whom are believed to have been re-hired despite warnings to the company not to re-hire due to their illegal immigration status. ICE agents also seized boxes of documents and other information from the company facilities during the searches.

The searches and arrests are part of an ongoing criminal investigation into Golden State’s hiring practices. In 1999 and 2004, ICE conducted audits of the firm’s hiring records, resulting in warnings to company officials about serious criminal and civil consequences for failing to comply with the orders. Subsequent to the second audit, ICE launched a criminal investigation into the company, which continues today.

In addition to reviewing employment records for Golden State’s Oceanside facility, ICE agents also recently audited some 300 employee records for the company’s Riverside facility. That review identified more than 100 employees who were unauthorized to work, including three individuals the company had been ordered not to re-hire based on the 1999 audit.

“ICE is using its unique immigration enforcement authorities to safeguard worksites and installations that are potentially vulnerable to security threats or sabotage,” said Frank Marwood, acting special agent-in-charge for ICE investigations in San Diego. “That strategy includes using criminal and administrative penalties to deter egregious violators who continue to re-hire unauthorized workers.”

Golden State is a Southern California company that has provided contract workers in San Diego to perform services at the U.S. Navy base on North Island. Previous ICE audits showed that some of Golden State’s employees had security IDs enabling them to enter North Island to construct fences on the base.

The investigation into Golden State’s hiring practices is part of Operation Safe Cities, an ongoing local ICE interior enforcement initiative implemented in 2003 to protect sensitive area businesses from possible security breaches. Since the initiative began, ICE agents here have arrested more than 350 foreign nationals working unlawfully at more than 700 businesses.

Today’s arrests are the latest in ICE’s ongoing efforts to target and remove illegal aliens working at sensitive sites and critical infrastructure locations around the nation, including defense facilities, nuclear plants, chemical plants, airports, and seaports. Unauthorized workers with access to security sensitive sites and critical infrastructure facilities are vulnerable to exploitation by terrorists, smugglers, traffickers or other criminals. In accordance with ICE’s homeland security mission, ICE agents prioritize worksite enforcement efforts by focusing on investigations related to critical infrastructure and national security.

In recent months, ICE agents have conducted a number of worksite enforcement operations at U.S. defense facilities, including the following:

Between October 18 and October 28, 2005, ICE special agents arrested dozens of illegal aliens who were performing contract work at the U.S. Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base-New Orleans in Belle Chasse, Louisiana; the White Sands Missile Range in Las Cruces, New Mexico; the U.S. Army’s Fort Irwin Training Center in San Bernardino, California; and the U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Base in Barstow, California.

At the Naval Air Station, ICE agents screened the identification of more than 450 contractors and sub-contractors working and detained six illegal aliens performing contract work there. The Naval Air Station had previously conducted its own investigation and formally barred more than a dozen workers from the facility.

At the White Sands Missile Range, ICE agents teamed up with the White Sands Missile Range Police Department to arrest an illegal alien trying to enter to perform contract work inside the facility. Police officials at the facility first sought help from ICE last month after intercepting 12 illegal aliens with fake documents attempting to enter the facility to work at a construction site inside.

At Fort Irwin, a U.S. Army desert warfare training facility, ICE agents took custody of six illegal aliens attempting to enter Fort Irwin, to perform contract work there. Base security had requested the assistance of ICE after questioning the validity of the documents presented by the illegal aliens as they attempted to enter the base for employment.

And at the Marine Corps Logistics Base, ICE agents took custody of an illegal alien attempting to enter to perform contract work there. Security officials at the base had intercepted the individual after he allegedly presented a fraudulent driver’s license and social security card to officials there.

On October 5, 2005, ICE arrested three illegal aliens who served as language instructors at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Two were criminally charged with using false documents to gain employment and making false statements. The third was charged with being in the country illegally. The employees provided instruction to U.S. Special Forces.

On October 4, 2005, seven illegal aliens were arrested at the U.S. Air Force Base in Mountain Home, Idaho, following an investigation by ICE and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The men were working for Nutek Construction, which was sub-contracted to build housing on the air base.

On August 26, 2005, ICE agents arrested six Mexican nationals at the U.S. Army’s Fort Irwin in Barstow, Calif. The men were working illegally for Laurence-Hovenier, Inc., a construction company building military housing at the base. The workers, most of whom had security badges authorizing them to enter the base, were identified after agents audited the hiring records of more than 700 Laurence-Hovenier workers. The audit found that more than 40 percent of the employees on the company’s payroll might not have been authorized to work in the U.S. The investigation continues.

On July 26, 2005, ICE agents arrested six illegal aliens working at the Homestead Air Reserve Base in Homestead, Fla. The men, who were contracted by a Texas-based corporation, were working on a major runway-resurfacing project. Officers working at the Air Reserve’s main gate noticed irregularities in the documents presented by the three men and called ICE for follow-up.
To aid employers with the immigration document screening process, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services operates the Basic Pilot Program, a Web-based system that businesses can use to verify the employment eligibility of newly hired workers. Nationwide, there are thousands of employer sites linked into the Basic Pilot Program, including nearly 2,000 in California. In San Diego, over 100 businesses are now using it. Interested employers are urged to call the agency’s toll-free number (888-464-4218) to obtain more information.

-- ICE --

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http://www.ice.gov/graphics/news/newsreleases/articles/051130santaana.htm

News Release

November 30, 2005

44 INDICTED IN LANDMARK MARRIAGE FRAUD INVESTIGATION
Probe targets Orange County network that arranged sham marriages primarily for Asian aliens

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A total of 44 individuals, many of them based in Orange County’s Little Saigon, have been indicted for their roles in an elaborate scheme to obtain fraudulent immigrant visas for hundreds of Chinese and Vietnamese nationals based on sham marriages to U.S. citizens.

The 13 separate indictments stem from a three-year, multi-agency investigation known as Operation “Newlywed Game.” The probe, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is believed to be one of the largest marriage fraud investigations ever undertaken in the United States. ICE received substantial assistance in the case from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, and the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.

Based on sealed indictments, ICE agents, accompanied by personnel from the Diplomatic Security Service, executed arrest warrants and conducted searches at 11 locations in Southern California and two sites in northern California yesterday. Among the locations searched was a Westminster residence where agents located the records of a now defunct travel agency, MT Travel, that investigators suspect was being used as a front to facilitate marriage fraud.

During the operation, 11 of the defendants were taken into custody. Most of the remaining suspects were either already under arrest on other charges, or will be summoned to appear in federal court for arraignment. (See accompanying list, page 3.)

The suspects in the case face a variety of federal charges, including conspiracy, fraud and misuse of visas, making false statements in passport applications, marriage fraud, and inducing aliens to enter the country illegally. Nine of the suspects who were arrested yesterday made their initial appearance in federal court in Santa Ana Tuesday afternoon. Two others appeared in federal court in San Francisco.

According to the indictments, the marriage fraud scheme involved a loose-knit network of “facilitators,” “recruiters,” and “petitioners.” At the heart of the conspiracy were the facilitators, who charged up to $60,000 to orchestrate sham marriages for foreign nationals with U.S. citizens for the purpose of submitting fraudulent immigrant visa petitions on behalf of the aliens.

The facilitators often used recruiters, who typically received $1,000 for each referral, to identify U.S. citizens willing to marry the aliens and submit the immigration visa petitions to USCIS. The U.S. citizen petitioners were paid thousands of dollars, plus travel expenses.

Since the foreign nationals often resided in Vietnam or China, the facilitators would then make arrangements for the U.S. citizen petitioners to go overseas to marry the aliens. After the sham marriage, the facilitators assisted the petitioners and aliens with filing bogus immigration petitions. The facilitators would also coach the petitioners and the aliens on what to say at subsequent adjustment of status interviews to persuade the USCIS officer that the couple had a legitimate marriage.

Because many of the facilitators used the same petitioners more than once, some of the U.S. citizens involved in the scheme had multiple “spouses” and submitted numerous fraudulent immigration petitions. Adjudicators at the USCIS California Service Center where the petitions are processed noticed the irregularities and alerted ICE agents, sparking the investigation. USCIS continued to support the investigation by referring scores of these cases through its newly established Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) program.

“Visa fraud undermines the integrity of our nation’s legal immigration system,” said Loraine Brown, special agent-in-charge for ICE investigations in Los Angeles. “These arrests should send a clear message that ICE is working aggressively to ensure that this kind of criminal activity does not go unchecked or unpunished.”

“You can expect an increasing number of immigration benefit fraud cases being detected as a result of USCIS and ICE's new joint anti-fraud strategy,” said Don Crocetti, Director of the FDNS for USCIS.

As part of Operation “Newlywed Game,” investigators reviewed scores of immigration files, as well as employment and travel histories to determine each defendant’s role. According to investigators, the suspects went to elaborate lengths to make the sham marriages appear legitimate, posing for wedding pictures, fabricating love letters, even creating fraudulent joint tax returns.

“The scope of this case clearly illustrates that the combined efforts of law enforcement agencies are yielding enhanced security of our borders by protecting the integrity of U.S. passports,” said Joe Morton, Director of the Diplomatic Security Service.

In addition to prosecuting the perpetrators of the scam, authorities are seeking to identify foreign nationals who may have illegally received immigration benefits as a result. ICE agents say those cases will be reviewed on an individual basis for potential criminal prosecution and deportation.

-- ICE --