Immigration Crackdown Targets Ky. Homebuilder Four Supervisors, 76 Illegal Immigrants Arrested POSTED: 12:54 pm EDT May 10, 2006
BOONE COUNTY, Ky. -- Four men who work as supervisors for Fischer Homes, a northern Kentucky construction company, are facing federal charges of harboring illegal immigrants.
A raid at construction sites in Hebron, Union and Florence on Tuesday found that 76 undocumented workers were working as subcontractors for the company, Cincinnati television station WLWT reported.
Timothy Copsy, Doug Witt, William Allison and Bill Ring were charged by federal officials.
They each face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000.
Authorities said they knew illegal immigrants were working on their home sites as subcontractors and did nothing to stop it.
The immigrants were taken into federal custody.
Darla Hamilton said her boyfriend was one of the immigrants arrested in the federal raid.
"I have three Hispanic children," Hamilton said. "Their dad is gone. They got him this morning going to work."
The federal raid extended to the company's headquarters, where authorities questioned surprised employees.
"I came back from lunch and everyone was here, and they were just investigating," employee Jenny Farrell said. "We weren't told what was going on."
Workers were soon told to go home and return to work Wednesday, WLWT reported.
"They just took our driver's license and took our information off of that, and phone numbers, and asked us what we did here for the company," Farrell said.
Fischer Homes said it couldn't comment on the investigation, but the company's president issued a news release Tuesday afternoon.
"Fischer Homes utilizes a rigorous screening process for all of its employees, including citizenship verification," the statement from Robert T. Hawksley said. "We require all subcontractors to sign a document promising they will use no illegal aliens as employees. Fischer Homes does not in any way, condone the hiring or use of illegal immigrants."
Fischer said it did not expect any delays in its construction schedule caused by the illegal alien crackdown.
Fischer Construction, founded in 1980, does business in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana.
The company has been named builder of the year and is listed as one of the country's top 100 construction companies.