Federal agents arrested 34 illegal immigrants in raids of two CMC Concrete Construction work sites in Prince William County Monday .
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests sent shock waves through a community that initiated its own crackdown earlier this month.
Federal agents had been scrutinizing the construction company as part of its stepped up investigations into workplaces that hire unauthorized workers, officials said.
“We like to turn off the magnet to illegal immigration, which is jobs,” ICE spokeswoman Pat Reilly said. “This is one of the primary ways in which we do interior enforcement.”
Repeated calls to the company’s two listed telephone numbers were unsuccessful Monday afternoon.
The investigation into the company, including the people responsible for hiring the illegal immigrants is continuing, Reilly said. “We have an ongoing operation out there. … For today, we have made arrests of people who are in the country illegally.”
The illegal immigrants, from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador, will be detained pending deportation proceedings.
While Prince William County police officers were on the scenes Monday, officials tried to separate the federal work-site arrests from the county’s policy allowing police officers to detain illegal immigrants who commit local crimes or traffic violations.
“We didn’t have anything to do with the operation,” said 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn, a police spokeswoman. “We put uniforms there when another agency comes into our jurisdiction.”
Attorney Lisa Johnson-Firth of the Immigration and Human Rights Law Group described a hectic scene at the raids Monday, where she collected the names of 22 workers who had been arrested at one of the sites, 8336 Wellington Road in Manassas.
The raids come as legal and illegal immigrants have been uneasy about seeking work at informal day-labor sites across Prince William County.
Businesses will be punished for unlawful hiring practices, said illegal immigration critic Christine Armstrong of Woodbridge.
“It’s sending a really good message to anyone that hires illegal immigrants. … We won’t tolerate it here.”
