Undocumented workers nailed for Lee County jail construction job
Feds, sheriff's office arrest 25 at expansion site for undocumented immigration
by gabriella souza • gsouza@news-press.com • May 16, 2008
Twenty-five workers remained in custody Thursday night after being arrested on immigration charges at the construction site of the new Lee County jail.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acted together and arrested 22 men and three women, all said to be undocumented and working on the jail's security tower at the site off Ortiz Avenue in east Fort Myers.
The sheriff's office then transported the workers, who are from Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala and Peru, to an ICE regional office. The location of the office was not revealed.
"It's embarrassing that we're building a county facility with county tax dollars and 25 workers are undocumented," said Sheriff Mike Scott.
Scott said the sheriff's office found out about the workers Wednesday afternoon, but were unable to locate them until Thursday. Scott would not say how he received the information.
ICE would not say whether the companies employing the workers would be charged in the case because they are still investigating.
Twenty-four of the workers were employed by subcontractors on the job; one worked for Kraft Construction, the project's construction manager.
"We're surprised and confused," said Richard Hart, vice president of human resources for Kraft Construction.
Kraft Construction never has been cited for hiring undocumented workers, he said. The employee arrested had worked for Kraft Construction since the late 1990s, Hart said.
"Our records indicate that he's a resident of the United States," he said.
Kraft had heard from ICE that the employee had an expired card, but was unable to determine what that meant, Hart said.
He did not know which of the project's 15 to 25 subcontractors had employed undocumented workers.
The subcontractor contract states that all background checks of employees, including checking to see if non-U.S. citizens have been cleared to work in the U.S., is the sole responsibility of the subcontractor, Hart said.
At least three workers being led from the construction site in handcuffs were employed by Spectrum Contracting Inc., one of the subcontractors.
John Schallert, president of Spectrum, said that the company hadn't been able to determine how many of their employees had been arrested by ICE.
"Every person who applies for employment with our company goes through our hiring process, and that includes producing the required documentation to prove employment eligibility," he said.
It is unclear how many workers are on the project. Kraft Construction has about seven, but it is unknown how many are employed by the subcontractors.
Lee County hired Kraft Construction, the main contractor, for the construction of the jail. When Kraft needed help with the workload or encountered a task its workers could not do, it contracted other companies to put in plumbing and paint walls, for example.
Lee County has a relationship with Kraft Construction that dates to the 1970s, Hart said. The company is working on the construction of Island Coast High School in Cape Coral and renovated the medical examiner's office two years ago.
Jim Lavender, Lee County's public works director, said the county has always had a good relationship with Kraft, and he didn't think it knowingly hired the undocumented worker. But he still planned to review Kraft's hiring practices and check its verification process for non-U.S. citizens.
It can be difficult to tell if a worker is undocumented, especially if he or she provides an employer with false documents, Lavender said.
"How does a subcontractor, who's not a government official, know if documents are false?" he asked.
Lavender said he wasn't surprised by the workers' arrests.
"You wonder in this day and age ... what type of subcontractors scrutinize their employees," Lavender said.
County officials broke ground on the new jail in November 2006. The project is estimated to cost about $53 million and is scheduled to be completed in late July or early August.
Capt. Tom Eberhardt, assistant commander of corrections services, said the workers' arrests would create only subtle delays in the project.
"It's just a matter of finding people to replace them," he said.
