Posted on August 30, 2018

Immigration Agents Detain More Than 100 Undocumented Workers in Texas Raid

Justin Wise, The Hill, August 29, 2018

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ICE detained 160 workers at a trailer manufacturer known as Load Trail, according to ABC News.

The network notes that the company had been previously charged with knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

“I knew these were clearly illegals. This is not the way we are supposed to be hiring,” Katrina Berger, the Department of Homeland Security’s special agent in charge of investigations, told ABC News. “They told me to keep doing my job — that if they were visited by ICE again, they would simply pay the fine and go on.”

Berger told the network that the raid was carried out after the agency received a tip about Load Trail hiring undocumented immigrants. Some of the immigrants were allegedly using fraudulent identification papers as well.

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In 2014, Load Trail paid a fine of nearly $500,000 for knowingly employing unauthorized workers, according to ABC News, which added that the company had employed 179 people who were in the country illegally at the time.

{snip} Earlier this month, agents raided businesses in Montana and Nebraska, indicting 17 business owners and mangers for fraud and money laundering.

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