Eighteen men, all illegal immigrants, were arrested this morning at a Loveland concrete plant by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the agency said today.
The arrests occurred at Colorado Precast Concrete Inc. and was a coordinated effort involving ICE, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office and the air branch of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which provided air support, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok.
The 18 men were arrested for being in the United States illegally, said Rusnok. One man is from El Salvador, and the rest are from Mexico.
Rusnok said that Colorado Precast manufactures concrete forms for various industrial concrete projects. He said the company fully cooperated with ICE during the operation and that no criminal charges are anticipated against the company.
The arrested men will be booked and jailed while awaiting deportation or a hearing before a federal immigration judge.
Jeffrey Copp, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Denver, said worksite-enforcement operations such as the one conducted today in Loveland “maintain the integrity of the immigration system.
“When supported by the evidence, ICE also actively pursues criminal charges against employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens,” said Copp.
Rusnok said that all ICE operations are the result of specific leads received from various sources.
He added that in fiscal 2007, ICE was able to obtain more than $30 million in criminal fines, restitution and civil judgments in worksite-enforcement cases.
In fiscal 2007, ICE arrested 863 people in criminal cases and made more than 4,000 administrative arrests.
In fiscal year 2008, through May, more than 850 criminal arrests tied to worksite-enforcement investigations were made. Of those, 75 were owners, managers, supervisors or human-resources employees who faced charges of harboring or knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition issued a statement tonight and denounced the raid.
“Raids are not the solution to the outdated and dysfunctional U.S. immigration system,” said Kim Medina of Fuerza Latina, a social justice organization in Fort Collins and Loveland, “We need a complete reform of our immigration laws. The criminalization of immigrants is a mean-spirited publicity stunt that only causes more pain and suffering for everyone.”
Fuerza Latina has created a Help-Line for Families Affected by the Raids: 970-472-1501.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
