U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested two employees of San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.-based Groomer’s Seafood during a raid of the business earlier this month, charging them with using fraudulent documentation.
ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) conducted a search of the seafood market 2 July, claiming that audits showed 29 employees had used fraudulent legal permanent resident (LPR) cards and social security numbers to gain employment at the business since 2016. Local news provider KSAT reported San Antonio City Attorney Andy Segovia as claiming that 12 people were arrested during the raid, although it wasn’t clear if they were affiliated with the business.
In an 11 July statement, the Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that two employees – Karen Y. Ordonez-Granados and Ledy Veronica Ordonez-Granados – were arrested and charged with one count of fraud or misuse of an immigration document. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the defendants admitted to paying USD 150 (EUR 129) for the fraudulent cards.
The two employees face up to 10 years in federal prison and a USD 250,000 (EUR 214,640) fine if convicted.
Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office said the arrests were among 222 new immigration cases federal prosecutors had filed this month as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy of drastically increasing immigration arrests.
“These cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime,” the office said in a statement.
While much of the national focus on Trump’s immigration raids has been on the agriculture sector, where ICE raids of meat packing and farming operations have seized hundreds of employees, the seafood sector has also been impacted. Like with agriculture businesses, many parts of the seafood industry rely on migrant and immigrant labor to operate.
Just three days after Trump took office, ICE detained three employees in a search of a New Jersey seafood wholesaler. In February, the U.S. Coast Guard arrested multiple commercial fishers in Massachusetts, U.S.A., for immigration violations. In May, ICE detained two employees of New Bedford-based seafood-processing company Oceans Fleet. The arrests have left many employees in the community scared, a former seafood worker who spoke to SeafoodSource on the condition of anonymity said.
"We leave home, and we don't know if we're going to come back," the former worker said.
