Sweep Nets 79 Undocumented Workers

Marshaling its expanding force of agents in Orange County, immigration authorities arrested 43 undocumented workers at a dozen construction sites and 36 more at four McDonald’s eateries, officials said Thursday.

The arrests are part of a heightened effort by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Orange County to crack down on the building industry and to increase its surveillance into less customary areas, like restaurants.

Thursday’s sweep picked up undocumented workers at four McDonald’s outlets in Irvine, Laguna Niguel and Newport Beach. The fast-food stores are operated by McDonald’s franchisee Joseph C. Nebeel Jr., 49, of Tustin.

In another sweep that lasted most of Tuesday, agents from the INS and the Contractors State License Board pulled workers from residential and commercial building sites in Yorba Linda, and they are continuing to investigate the 12 contractors and subcontractors who employed the workers.

“Our priority is to investigate those employers who we think are in industries with the most egregious problems,” said John Brechtel, acting head of the INS office in Santa Ana. “The garment industry is one of those, and the construction industry is another.”

In addition, the INS is making a concerted effort to look into industries, like restaurants, that it hasn’t focused on previously.

The federal agency’s enforcement division in Santa Ana had been hindered in past years by a small staff. But in the last 18 months, it has tripled its local force to more than 50 agents and aides, Brechtel said.

Thursday’s sweep stunned patrons at McDonald’s as INS agents rushed in at the four sites in a coordinated action at 11:30 a.m. and handcuffed 36 of Nebeel’s workers.

Nebeel was unavailable for comment Thursday.