50 Illegal Immigrants Arrested At Company

Nearly 50 Mexicans were arrested Friday in Wenatchee at the fruit company where they were illegally employed, authorities said.

Border Patrol agents searched the Dovex Fruit Company shortly before 9 a.m. and found 41 women and six men, all of whom used fake documents to get jobs in the United States, officials said. All are citizens of Mexico.

Edward Nelson, an assistant chief for the Border Patrol, said the arrests came after nearly six months of investigations in Wenatchee. Fifteen Border Patrol agents from Spokane helped serve the warrants Friday.

The illegal aliens all agreed to return to their country voluntarily, without requesting a deportation hearing. Nelson said they would be taken to Seattle and flown to the Mexican border this morning.

There is no evidence that supervisors at the Dovex Fruit Company knowingly violated the law, Nelson said. Unless additional evidence proves otherwise, the company will not be fined, he said.