48 Arrested in INS Sweep at Anaheim Plant

Federal agents raided an Anaheim graphics plant Tuesday morning and arrested 48 workers suspected of being illegal aliens, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said.

John Belluardo said it was the second such raid within the past year at STS Graphics, 1515 E. Winston Road, which employs about 200 people. He said several of those arrested Tuesday morning had been among the 87 workers picked up in the June 14, 1984, raid at the plant.

Belluardo said security officers at the plant had alerted workers of the raid through an internal communications system when the 40 INS agents arrived with a federal search warrant. He said some of the workers tried to hide in locked closets and other rooms.

Thirty-four of the workers are from Mexico and 14 are from El Salvador, Belluardo said. They were taken to the Los Angeles district office for processing, Belluardo said. From there, they will be deported or they can request deportation hearings, he said.

Belluardo said Tuesday’s raid was not part of the work of an INS special task force that arrested 7,200 illegal aliens and 232 smugglers in Arizona and California during a recent 30-day crackdown.