Day laborers made agents’ work easy

Twenty-four day laborers in the country illegally were arrested Tuesday when they asked for work from federal immigration agents who had gathered in a parking lot after an unsuccessful undercover operation, authorities said.

The agents had regrouped after a search for illegal immigrants who had been ordered to leave the country, said Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Raimondi said the laborers admitted they were in the country illegally after they asked the agents whether they needed workers and the agents responded by asking them, in Spanish, where they were from. Among those arrested were six who had criminal records in the United States.