Published: Oct 18, 2005
Modified: Oct 18, 2005 7:55 PM

Immigration officials arrest 36 at Cree

By KARIN RIVES AND JONATHAN B. COX, Staff Writers

Federal immigration officials arrested 36 undocumented workers at Cree
this morning, and signalled that other Triangle technology companies with
foreign workers on the payroll will come under scrutiny.
The early-morning sweep at the Durham semiconductor-chip maker netted
unauthorized immigrants from Kenya, Gambia, Congo, Togo, Israel, Pakistan,
Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, following a 10-month long
investigation. All but 10 were employed by a maintenance and cafeteria
services subcontractor, GCA Services Group of West Conshohocken, Penn.

The remaining Cree employees included professionals who had allegedly lied
about not being citizens on their I-9, the form employers must fill out to
ensure their employers are authorized to work, said Tom O'Connell, agent
in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Cary.

After targeting North Carolina military bases and airports in recent
months, the agency is ready to take a closer look at private-sector
companies with large defense contracts. Following the 2001 terrorist acts
and passage of the 2002 Homeland Security Act, the federal government is
cracking down on undocumented immigrants working in sensitive areas, such
as nuclear power plants and airports.

"Cree is the first is the first high-tech industry we've taken enforcement
action on, but we have a lot of companies in [Research Triangle Park] that
do high-tech stuff," O'Connell said. "We may try to expand our critical
infrastructure protection initiative in that area." Cree has several
contracts with federal agencies, including the Defense Department. In
August, the company won an Air Force contract worth $15 million for work
on technology that could lead to more advanced radar. Cree makes tiny
chips that are used to illuminate cell phones and other devices.

Cynthia B. Merrell, Cree's chief financial officer, said none of the
workers arrested today were associated with government contracts. GCA, the
Cree subcontractor, did not return calls seeking comments. Cree employees
were caught by surprise by the arrests, unaware of the probe that had been
under way with Cree's cooperation since January, O'Connell said. "The last
thing they expected to be at Cree this morning were immigration agents,"
he said.

Cree, which is not charged with a crime, has stringent hiring policies
that went "above and beyond" what the government requires of its defense
contractors, O'Connell said.

And yet, the company was unable to weed out people who either presented
false papers or lied on documents — an indication of the challenges
employers face.

"We had no way of knowing these documents were false," Merrell said.

"Cree did its diligence to check these work documents, but some of them
were forged documents."

Staff writer Karin Rives can be reached at 829-4521 or
[log in to unmask]












Related




  Business


Furniture-part costs rise

Red Hat founder resigns board seat

Immigration officials arrest 36 at Cree

Inflation on the rise

Greenspan: Energy prices to drag economy

Natural gas prices soar



  Story Tools
Printer friendly

Send to a friend

Related















© Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company
A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company
Help | Contact Us | Parental Consent | Privacy | Terms of Use | RSS Feeds
| N&O Store
 Hosting Partners of
newsobserver.com
  Member of the
Real Cities Network

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤