For the second time in two years, federal agents rounded up dozens of suspected illegal immigrants at Washington Dulles International Airport Wednesday, raising security concerns for the country’s infrastructure.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents set up a checkpoint outside an entry gate for airport employees Wednesday, checking 200 workers and arresting 42 suspected illegal immigrants. Most of those detained are believed to work on construction projects at the airport, although their employers had not been verified as of Wednesday afternoon, said special agent in charge Mark X. McGraw.
None of the people arrested is believed to be involved in terrorist activity, McGraw said, but “it raises serious security concerns. We don’t know who these people are and how they got here.”
He then added, “it is crucial to ICE’s mission to know who is entering sensitive areas in order to ensure the integrity of our country’s infrastructure.”
The checkpoint, he said, was set up as part of an ongoing effort by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to secure some of the nation’s most vulnerable structures, including airports, power plants and water supplies.
The illegal immigrants detained Wednesday will have the opportunity to meet with an immigration lawyer or return to their home country, McGraw said. In the meantime, all 42 will be processed, but it remains unclear where they will be held with “jail space at a premium,” he said.
Several jails in the region are already at or near capacity. Montgomery County is no longer accepting federal prisoners after a spate of more serious crimes has led to a booming inmate population in recent months. Prince William County’s crackdown on illegal immigrants has led to overcrowding in its detention center.
In a similar, July 2006 raid at Dulles, 55 illegal immigrants were arrested, most of whom were doing contract construction work at the airport inside a secure area where they had potential access to runways and airplanes. Most of those illegal immigrants were held in an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas.
Relatives and friends wishing to check the custody status and detention location of those detained Wednesday should call 866-341-3858.
