25 Illegal Mexican workers caught at Alaska seafood plant

August 3, 2006

Homeland Security officers raided a Alaska fish-processing plant in late July and arrested 25 Mexicans on tourist visas who were posing as legal workers and employed on the cannery's 'slime line. All between 18 and 20 years old, the Mexican nationals were flown to Seattle where they are undergoing deportation prodcedures.

U.S. authorities were alerted to the workers when a state trooper visited Snug Harbor Seafoods on in mid-July looking for a automobile that had been in a single-vehicle accident. The trooper found the driver and passengers of the car and a dozen others camped out on plant grounds, which is where many cannery workers live for extended periods of time during the summer seasonal work. He asked to see their visa papers, and the Mexicans showed him their tourist visas and said they were just visiting.

The troopers notified federal authorities of their suspicions that the workers were illegally in the country.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the plant in late July, and arrested 23 Mexican nationals while two more fled into nearby woods. All were transported to Anchorage, where they were put on a flight to Seattle.

Immigration officials did not know how long the workers had been in the United States.

Paul Dale, the owner of the seafood company, said the young Mexicans showed up in person to apply for the jobs and told him they were college students in Mexico. They presented him with what he thought were legitimate residency papers that allowed them to work.