ICE Arrests More Than 280 Workers at a Texas Tech Company

More than 280 employees of a Texas tech company were arrested by federal immigration authorities in what officials say was the biggest single workplace raid in a decade.

Workers at CVE Technology Group Inc. in Allen, north of Dallas, were arrested for reportedly working in the United States unlawfully.

The raid formed part of a growing investigation into claims the company knowingly hired workers who are in the US without authorization, and that many readily use fake identification, Homeland Security said.

The New Jersey-based company which repairs tech products has a large depot in North Texas, according to the company website.

‘Our focus is the criminal investigation,’ said Katrina W. Berger, a special agent in charge for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations in Dallas.

‘As far as immigration-related arrests, this is the largest ICE worksite operation at one site in the last 10 years,’ she said.

Frightened relatives of the near-300 arrested rushed to the facility after the word of the operation spread, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

Anel Perez, the daughter of a worker who was been detained, said, ‘It’s not fair. It’s really sad and it makes a lot of people really angry and frustrated,’

Berger meanwhile said she was unable discuss the details of that ongoing probe but that ‘the numbers of the administrative arrests we made today hint at the significant scope of this investigation.’

CE said that all those detained would be interviewed ‘to record any medical, sole-caregiver or other humanitarian situations,’ and then be considered for humanitarian release.

The agency said in the statement: ‘In all cases, all illegal aliens encountered will be fingerprinted and processed for removal from the United States.’

ICE said search warrants were executed at CVE Technology Group Inc. and four of CVE’s staffing companies.