ICE Arrests 59 Unauthorized Foreign Nationals Employed by Asheville, North Carolina, Department of Defense Contractor
On August 12, 2008, fifty-nine (59) foreign nationals illegally working at 
Mills Manufacturing Corporation (“MMC”) were arrested in North Carolina by U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”)'s agents. The arrests were based on a “critical infrastructure” investigation carried out by ICE which revealed that illegal aliens had used fraudulent social security numbers to obtain employment.
According to ICE, the company is cooperating fully and is not, at present, a target of its investigation. MMC is a Department of Defense contractor responsible for the manufacturing of parachutes for the U.S. military and therefore a “sensitive facility.” ICE stated that “it does not believe that arrested individuals at MMC had any ill intent against the US government or its people. However, and which appears to be a new development in ICE’s arsenal of security reasons to raid “sensitive facilities”, ICE stated that "their illegal status" could have made them "susceptible to blackmail by those with ill intent."
Delburt Richburg, assistant special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Charlotte, stated that "When individuals use fraudulent social security numbers to get jobs, they hide their true identity and history. We need to know who is working on our critical infrastructure sites." All of those arrested today were transferred to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office for immigration processing. All have been placed into removal proceedings for being in violation of U.S. immigration law. At this point, no criminal charges have been presented against the arrested foreign nationals. The investigation, however, still continues. Among the arrested, were nationals of Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador and Honduras.
As of July 2008, ICE has made more than 3,800 administrative arrests for immigration violations during worksite enforcement operations. Interestingly enough, Orlando, Florida has a significant number of "sensitive" companies in the defense industry. I think immigration corporate compliance should be on their minds.
