Illegal Aliens Arrested In Jacket Shop False Documents Used To Get Hired, Ins Reports

Sun., July 14, 1996

Associated Press

Federal agents have arrested 10 illegal aliens from Mexico at a local garment company.

The 10 were among about 30 workers at Hans Manufacturing Co. who were checked by agents from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service last week.

The arrested workers used false documents to get hired, the INS said in a news release. Six of them voluntarily returned to Mexico, while four requested hearings before an immigration judge, the agency said.

Company owner Don Han said an INS agent told him Friday that he had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the case, although the news release said INS was investigating the company’s hiring procedures.

A spokesman for the U.S. Labor Department in Seattle said the company also was being investigated for possible wage and hour violations in connection with the use of illegal aliens.

Han said his company, which makes fleece jackets and backpacks, has been in business since 1991 and pays its workers “legal wages.” He said two of the arrested workers were new hires, while others had worked there for as long as two years.

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