WORKSITE RAID AT THE PENTAGON UNCOVERS 33 UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS

About 500 construction workers are employed each day at the Pentagon as part of a 1.2$ billion renovation project.  During a recent raid, INS officials examined the employment authorization documents of about 200 workers and discovered that 33 workers were using fraudulent documentation.

None of the construction workers were employed directly by the Pentagon, but were rather employed by subcontractors.  However, each worker had received special permission from the Pentagon to be allowed to work in the building, which houses the US Department of Defense.  The Pentagon did not investigate any of the workers, and only by chance noticed that some of the workers were using the same Social Security Numbers. 

Several Hispanic community activists have expressed concerns that the raid was ethnically biased.  They claim only Hispanic workers were asked to produce employment authorization, and that workers were forced out of the building by a false bomb threat.  INS officials deny the allegation about the bomb threat, as well as any ethnic bias in the raid.  They are still investigating whether the subcontractors knowingly hired the undocumented workers, who are now facing deportation.

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