9 held on illegal-immigration charges
Nine employees of a party supplies rental company were arrested Thursday on immigration violations as part of a crackdown on illegal hiring at military bases and other high-security workplaces.
The five women and four men were arrested at Classic Party Rentals Inc.’s offices here and were to be returned to their native Mexico, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Classic Party Rentals does work at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, where immigration authorities recently began reviewing contractors’ employee records, Mack said. An audit of the company found 30 of 105 San Diego employees were in the U.S. illegally. It was unclear if any of the nine arrested worked at the military base.
The workers gave the company fake legal resident cards when they applied for jobs, Mack said. Authorities do not plan to prosecute the company.
Messages left after business hours at the company’s San Diego office and its Los Angeles headquarters were not returned.
Since 2003, immigration authorities in San Diego have targeted companies that work on military bases, airport tarmacs and other high-security workplaces. A recent audit of 93 contractors at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base resulted in 168 arrests.
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