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TechnographEmployees charged with ID theft
Identities given to illegal immigrants
By The Associated Press
Posted: 4/5/07 Section: News
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Executives at a Beardstown cleaning company were arrested Wednesday on federal charges that they hired illegal immigrants and helped them steal the identities of U.S. citizens.
Federal immigration agents arrested Gerardo Dominguez, the plant manager for Quality Service Integrity Inc., and Maria del Pilar Marroquin de Ramirez, the company's personnel administrator. The charges against the two Beardstown residents include aggravated identity theft.
Authorities also charged 25 other QSI employees with identity theft, and have arrested 11 of them. The 13 employees who were arrested were scheduled to appear in federal court on Thursday.
QSI is a contractor that cleans a Cargill meat-processing plant.
"Evidence uncovered during the investigation indicates that valid identities of U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents were illegally obtained and used to employ illegal aliens at QSI," said Lindsay Murphy, assistant special agent-in-charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Another 49 workers were taken into custody as illegal aliens.
Officials claim Dominguez had access to several assumed identities, which he provided to new employees.
Authorities say one informant, who wore a recorder, told plant officials his documents were fake. Dominguez and others allegedly told him and other informants to get better documents, saying good counterfeits were available in Chicago and providing them information for false identities.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone arrested Wednesday had an attorney. A message left at QSI's headquarters in Chattanooga, Tenn., was not immediately returned.
About 100 QSI cleaning employees worked at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant, which can process up to 18,000 hogs a day, said Cargill spokesman Mark Klein. Klein said the Wayzata, Minn.-based agribusiness powerhouse cooperated with immigration officials and is serious about following hiring laws for its 2,200 workers at the plant.
Diego Bonesatti, spokesman for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said a community meeting was scheduled Wednesday evening to answer questions from Beardstown's large Latino population. He called for a moratorium on such raids until Congress sets a new immigration policy.
Federal immigration agents arrested Gerardo Dominguez, the plant manager for Quality Service Integrity Inc., and Maria del Pilar Marroquin de Ramirez, the company's personnel administrator. The charges against the two Beardstown residents include aggravated identity theft.
Authorities also charged 25 other QSI employees with identity theft, and have arrested 11 of them. The 13 employees who were arrested were scheduled to appear in federal court on Thursday.
QSI is a contractor that cleans a Cargill meat-processing plant.
"Evidence uncovered during the investigation indicates that valid identities of U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents were illegally obtained and used to employ illegal aliens at QSI," said Lindsay Murphy, assistant special agent-in-charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Another 49 workers were taken into custody as illegal aliens.
Officials claim Dominguez had access to several assumed identities, which he provided to new employees.
Authorities say one informant, who wore a recorder, told plant officials his documents were fake. Dominguez and others allegedly told him and other informants to get better documents, saying good counterfeits were available in Chicago and providing them information for false identities.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone arrested Wednesday had an attorney. A message left at QSI's headquarters in Chattanooga, Tenn., was not immediately returned.
About 100 QSI cleaning employees worked at the Cargill Meat Solutions plant, which can process up to 18,000 hogs a day, said Cargill spokesman Mark Klein. Klein said the Wayzata, Minn.-based agribusiness powerhouse cooperated with immigration officials and is serious about following hiring laws for its 2,200 workers at the plant.
Diego Bonesatti, spokesman for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said a community meeting was scheduled Wednesday evening to answer questions from Beardstown's large Latino population. He called for a moratorium on such raids until Congress sets a new immigration policy.
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