160 Suspected Illegals Detained After Texas ICE Raid

Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

On August 28, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents detained 160 “undocumented” workers at Load Trail, a trailer-manufacturing company in Sumner, Texas, about 115 miles northeast of Dallas. “Undocumented” is a euphemism for aliens who are in this country illegally.

ABC News quoted Katrina Berger, Homeland Security’s special agent in charge of investigations, who said the HSI/ICE launched its investigation after receiving a tip that Load Trail may have knowingly hired illegal aliens, including some who were allegedly using fraudulent identification documents.

“I knew these were clearly illegals. This is not the way we are supposed to be hiring,” Berger said. “They told me to keep doing my job — that if they were visited by ICE again, they would simply pay the fine and go on.”

“We’re watching and we’re coming,” Berger said. “Businesses that knowingly hire illegal aliens create an unfair advantage over their competing businesses.”

“In addition, they take jobs away from U.S. citizens and legal residents, and they create an atmosphere posed for exploiting their illegal workforce,” she added.

Load Trail has violated immigration law before. Dallas ABC affiliated station WFAA reported, citing federal records, that in 2014, the company agreed to pay a $444,993 fine for “knowingly hiring and continuing to employ unauthorized workers.”

CNN reported on August 29 that this raid in Texas is the latest of several recent crackdowns nationwide. In June, federal immigration agents targeted a meat supplier in Massillon, Ohio, and arrested more than 100 workers suspected of using stolen or fraudulent identification.

We reported in June that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice had just jointly released their “Alien Incarceration Report Fiscal Year 2018, Quarter 1,” revealing eye-opening statistics on the arrests of illegal aliens inside the United States who are currently in federal custody pending trial or deportation. The report stated that 57,820 known or suspected aliens were in DOJ custody.

Among the important facts contained in the report was that approximately 46 percent (17,621) of known or suspected aliens in Federal Bureau of Prisons custody had committed drug trafficking or other drug-related offenses (such as conspiracy to commit drug trafficking offenses, or smuggling large amounts of drugs on the high seas) as their primary offense.