Federal immigration agents raid Lamar Co. trailer manufacturer




SUMNER, Tex. (KXII) - Federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) raided a trailer manufacturing company in Lamar County Tuesday.

Not many details are yet known, but witnesses tell us it was a surprise raid and that they are detaining undocumented immigrants employed at Load Trail, LLC in Sumner, Texas.

"Special agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are conducting an enforcement action in Sumner, Texas, in support of a criminal investigation," I.C.E. spokesman Carl Rusnok said in an emailed statement to News 12.

Rusdok provided no further comment, but said more information would be released later in the day Tuesday.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Katrina Berger, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) Dallas office, said Tuesday’s law enforcement operation is expected to be one of the largest of its kind nationally in a decade.

As part of a criminal search warrant, agents plan to question employees and seize employment documents. Hundreds of workers were expected to be “administratively arrested” and processed for immigration violations. All are to be be issued notices to appear in immigration court for civil proceedings.

We have a crew in Sumner and will have more tonight on News 12.

I’m guessing it wouldn’t be much of a raid if it wasn’t a surprise...

Police. Show me you I-9!

Don't just prosecute the employees.
Arrest and jail the employer.

+++Infinity, you rarely ever hear of employers ever getting prosecuted.

quote:

Originally posted by xl_target:
Don't just prosecute the employees.
Arrest and jail the employer.

They probably have I-9s, but a lot of them are probably based on fake IDs.

quote:

Originally posted by craigcpa:
Police. Show me you I-9!

Have a friend in the area, according to him it's not the first time. The company was fined $450k a few years ago.

Also said the son of a friend is a welder there, said he felt a tap on his helmet, turned around to a gun in his face. Not the way you want to start your work day.

quote:

The company was fined $450k a few years ago.

Welding is skilled work. The owner really saves that much money in lower wages?

I don't think QUALITY is exactly "Job #1" at the majority of the travel trailer factories. It's more like "turn them out, quick and cheap".

Had a friend who worked as a Tech several years back at a Trailer SALES company, that did also do warranty work. He said the garbage they had to work on was depressing. They use cheap and light material as is....But the workers also fail to install the required rivets, nails, etc. So an already weak design is weaker.

I agree.....the Employers need to be fined as well.

Who knew we had High Speed Internet Police?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

The company was fined $450k a few years ago.

Welding is skilled work. The owner really saves that much money in lower wages?

I'm thinking much of those rounded illegals were not welders, more like assembly, storage, cleaning, etc.

Think about it, if you were fined $450K once and got away with it for 10, 15 even 20 years it's not a scratch on the savings.

An immigration raid in Texas? Old joke in the construction industry: Drive to a Brown and Root Co. Jobsite in Texas and yell “Federales!”.

Amazing how fast the entire workforce disappears.

Probably true for most all Texas job sites now.

There is a new home going up next door to me. The roofing and the dry wall crews spoke zero English. I have no knowledge of their legal status, but If I were a betting man... I do have to say that these two crews were the best workers I've seen on the sight.
Rod

quote:

aided a trailer manufacturing company in Lamar County Tuesday.

But..they only take jobs no one else wants??????

The old claim was they did all the farm work. Yet these seems to be a falsehood.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...m_term=.6f49694528b5

My roof was just replaced, along with about a dozen others in my subdivision, the roofing labor was Hispanic, only white folks were on the ground in supervisory roles.

They did a great job, from removal to full replacement in one day, start at 6, end at 3 worked hard the whole time.

Couldn't tell you what their immigration status is/was but it is concerning to a few of the folks that you have all these potentially undocumented workers in your neighborhood, who could easily work with someone criminal, observing patterns of coming and going, dogs or no, children, type of car etc.

That could happen no matter the nationality of the worker.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
My roof was just replaced, along with about a dozen others in my subdivision, the roofing labor was Hispanic

We had our roof replaced a few months ago. The owner of the company spoke some English, the worker bees were all Spanish speakers. The company owner's daughter, who ran the office operations, spoke pretty good English, but she was dumber than a box of rocks.

Both the city inspector and the independent home inspector who did the wind mitigation report, said that the job was outstanding, good materials used and excellent workmanship.

The downside, for the workers -- they were dropped off in the morning and sort of left to fend for themselves. My wife and I kept them supplied with cold water and snacks.

When they were doing the roof the whole team took a lunch break, two guys hooked a small microwave oven on my front porch.

At this point I'm almost ready to start asking for green cards before I allow someone to work on my house. The illegals (both aliens and unlicensed) hurt me financially as I'm a tradesman.

I need a new roof soon and I do not want to contribute to the undercutting of fellow tradesman or Americans doing the work. I want all workers in my home to be legal immigrants or American born, I've been willing to pay more and wait longer for all things in the past to get that, I plan on continuing to do so. Luckily I've got a buddy who owns a company in every trade except plumbing. I put my money in licensed companies and legal workers hands.